Guild Wars 2

Hi,

Wasn’t there an Arenanet post by Linsey Murdock about working on the Precursor Scavenger Hunt but that it wasn’t the only thing she was working on and that she was human after all?

Well, I can’t find it. I’ve looked at pages and pages of Dev posts, and it’s not there. What the heck happened?

Cheers.

“Linsey Murdock scavenger” in google: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/linsey-murdock-unveils-new-high-end-ascended-gear/
;)

Zapan.7460:

“Linsey Murdock scavenger” in google: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/linsey-murdock-unveils-new-high-end-ascended-gear/
;)

That’s an old blog post. I’m talking about a recent post in a thread on these forums.

Cheers.

same method, picking the threads found, i got this: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/crafting/Patch-fixing-precursors/first#post767166
Linsey Murdock post middle of page 1.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/crafting/Patch-fixing-precursors/first#post761776

Just had to type in the forum search “Linsey” & go through her message posts & it was her most recent post (1st at the top).

EDIT – Zapan beat me, gratz lol :P

ColinJohanson.2394:

Hey guys,

Just a quick update on where the whole scavenger hunt system stands since I know that’s a topic many of you have brought up recently. We’re not currently actively working on building any sort of legendary precursor scavenger hunt, this is something we want to do in the future and we’re in the midst of designing how this would function, but no one is actively building this feature and you should not expect in the Jan/Feb/March releases at this point.

We are however working on expanding reward systems to make them more re-rewarding across all parts of the game, making the open world more rewarding, and adding new ways you can earn precursors as rewards via new reward systems taking advantage of our open persistent world.

Some of these additions will come as early as the January release, and will get covered in more detail in the next week or two as well release all the details about this release once testing has signed off it’s all ready to go in January. (we’ll also provide a high level summary of our goals with reward systems, etc. in our 2013 blog post, which should be out next week)

AWWW I was hoping for the scav hunt

So roughly translated, open world events will have collectable tokens for you to trade for various items (just theorising!). If this is the case then I just hope that that youre limited to the amount of tokens you can earn in a day so to avoid issues with people grinding specific areas.

Zapan.7460:

same method, picking the threads found, i got this: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/crafting/Patch-fixing-precursors/first#post767166
Linsey Murdock post middle of page 1.

Thanks. Nov 16th. That’s why I didn’t find it. I didn’t go back far enough.

BTW: Read via google that Linsey doesn’t work for Arenanet anymore. How come?

Cheers.

Thereon.3495:

So roughly translated, open world events will have collectable tokens for you to trade for various items (just theorising!). If this is the case then I just hope that that youre limited to the amount of tokens you can earn in a day so to avoid issues with people grinding specific areas.

I certainly hope so this would definitely bring people back to the world.
Altho karma would remain useless beyond the first set of exotics.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Hey guys,

Just a quick update on where the whole scavenger hunt system stands since I know that’s a topic many of you have brought up recently. We’re not currently actively working on building any sort of legendary precursor scavenger hunt, this is something we want to do in the future and we’re in the midst of designing how this would function, but no one is actively building this feature and you should not expect in the Jan/Feb/March releases at this point.

We are however working on expanding reward systems to make them more re-rewarding across all parts of the game, making the open world more rewarding, and adding new ways you can earn precursors as rewards via new reward systems taking advantage of our open persistent world.

Some of these additions will come as early as the January release, and will get covered in more detail in the next week or two as well release all the details about this release once testing has signed off it’s all ready to go in January. (we’ll also provide a high level summary of our goals with reward systems, etc. in our 2013 blog post, which should be out next week)

I sense a lot of rage building that’s going to manifest itself into a billion threads.

Anyhows, thanks for the update. Looking forward to them posts.

Lankybrit.4598:

BTW: Read via google that Linsey doesn’t work for Arenanet anymore. How come?
Cheers.

Linsey?? what? did you read the 2010 article about leaving GW1 live team? http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/07/23/linsey-murdock-stepping-down-from-arenanet-live-team/

TY for posting Colin!

I really hope these new rewards cover lodestones as well, because their prices are pretty unbalanced with other currently.

ColinJohanson.2394:

We are however working on expanding reward systems to make them more re-rewarding across all parts of the game, making the open world more rewarding, and adding new ways you can earn precursors as rewards via new reward systems taking advantage of our open persistent world.

Some of these additions will come as early as the January release, and will get covered in more detail in the next week or two as well release all the details about this release once testing has signed off it’s all ready to go in January. (we’ll also provide a high level summary of our goals with reward systems, etc. in our 2013 blog post, which should be out next week)

Sounds really exciting. Next week can’t come fast enough!

I guess I should change my sign then since what has been said is false.

I now have no idea of what to expect, I just hope they get rid of RNG, or reduce the amount of randomness required to do things, or split them among smaller RNGs, or something else.

fony.5102:

ColinJohanson.2394:

We are however working on expanding reward systems to make them more re-rewarding across all parts of the game, making the open world more rewarding, and adding new ways you can earn precursors as rewards via new reward systems taking advantage of our open persistent world.

this is all we need to know.

This is true too, thanks!

ColinJohanson.2394:

We are however working on expanding reward systems to make them more re-rewarding across all parts of the game, making the open world more rewarding, and adding new ways you can earn precursors as rewards via new reward systems taking advantage of our open persistent world.

this is all we need to know.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Hey guys,

Just a quick update on where the whole scavenger hunt system stands since I know that’s a topic many of you have brought up recently. We’re not currently actively working on building any sort of legendary precursor scavenger hunt, this is something we want to do in the future and we’re in the midst of designing how this would function, but no one is actively building this feature and you should not expect in the Jan/Feb/March releases at this point.

We are however working on expanding reward systems to make them more re-rewarding across all parts of the game, making the open world more rewarding, and adding new ways you can earn precursors as rewards via new reward systems taking advantage of our open persistent world.

Some of these additions will come as early as the January release, and will get covered in more detail in the next week or two as well release all the details about this release once testing has signed off it’s all ready to go in January. (we’ll also provide a high level summary of our goals with reward systems, etc. in our 2013 blog post, which should be out next week)

I just became significantly less excited about these patches.

I was already starting to worry a little when you came out and said “the amount of content we’re changing makes these patches an expansion’s worth of work”, which to me is almost an admission not to expect a true expansion’s worth of content. But I was still okay with that because you said your end goal for these patches was to strengthen the core game. Okay, fair enough, faith restored. Until now.

Legendaries are one of your game’s biggest problem areas (with the one exception of dungeons) in terms of endgame PvE content. They’re being bought and sold on the Trading Post for countless gold amounts. The precursors boil down to being an item that you either have to get very lucky obtaining (via sacrifice to the RNG Gods) or else be very rich and play the TP like it’s a full-time stock job at Wall Street. And the rest of the Legendary model is equally as ugly, with an excessive amount of grinding. But perhaps the worst offense is that “Legendaries”….just aren’t. There’s nothing skill-based about them, and indeed, it’s entirely possible to obtain them without ever really challenging yourself in this game.

And you’re telling us that you’re not going to address this problem for at least three more months? And your only effective step towards fixing this problem is to introduce even more “incredibly rare RNG drop” locations for precursors in the coming months?

I don’t mean to sound so disappointed, but I really am. This isn’t a dealbreaker for these patches, but I had thought that the dev team understood how serious of a problem they have with regards to Legendaries and providing more high-end gear in more ways and more places. But it seems we differ significantly on what this game’s problems are.

I’m glad that at least it seems we agree that the game’s rewards system is woefully inefficient right now, though. So maybe these patches will still be the decisive boost this game needs. I’m just really sad that one of the game’s weakest areas isn’t currently deemed important enough to fix.

I don’t mean to sound rude to the devs but what took/ is taking them so long to incorporate this huge and awesome world they created and adding some incentive for players to revisit low -level area’s?

Thereon.3495:

So roughly translated, open world events will have collectable tokens for you to trade for various items (just theorising!). If this is the case then I just hope that that youre limited to the amount of tokens you can earn in a day so to avoid issues with people grinding specific areas.

No, it has to be something else (or at least more complicated) because gold sellers could still cash in tokens for items/gold.

Aproposs Of Fire.4056:

Thereon.3495:

So roughly translated, open world events will have collectable tokens for you to trade for various items (just theorising!). If this is the case then I just hope that that youre limited to the amount of tokens you can earn in a day so to avoid issues with people grinding specific areas.

No, it has to be something else (or at least more complicated) because gold sellers could still cash in tokens for items/gold.

It could be a soulbound token you get once each day on each map for killing a Champion (as a normal loot item from its corpse).

Normal players could get 1 token for each map every day from this “Champion Map Daily” by grouping up, but botters traveling from map to map and killing Champions would be borderline impossible. Plus, since it’s soulbound like Skill Point materials (Bloodstone Shard, Crystal, ect), the Legendary precursor would need to be crafted in the Mystic Forge by that character specifically (I’m thinking 250 tokens, 250 ectos, 100 Mystic Coins, and one of the gifts specific to the Legendary).

Edit: Added bonus: Champions are more worth killing, which is another issue they wanted to address!

critickitten.1498:

And you’re telling us that you’re not going to address this problem for at least three more months? And your only effective step towards fixing this problem is to introduce even more “incredibly rare RNG drop” locations for precursors in the coming months?

That’s not what he said. He said that they weren’t specifically working on a scavenger hunt for precursors, but that the issues with getting them would begin to be addressed. I think it’s best to wait and see what the “new reward systems” consist of before assuming they’re just going to add them as rare drops to more locations.

TheDaiBish.9735:

I sense a lot of rage building that’s going to manifest itself into a billion threads.

Anyhows, thanks for the update. Looking forward to them posts.

There are petulant children who are going to throw a tantrum no matter what. Make precursors too hard to get, and the game sucks because it requires too much grinding. Make precursors too easy to get, and the game sucks because it panders to casuals. It’s literally a lose/lose scenario. If I were the devs I’d not let the whining cacophony from the peanut gallery sway me too far from my original vision.

darkace.8925:

TheDaiBish.9735:

I sense a lot of rage building that’s going to manifest itself into a billion threads.

Anyhows, thanks for the update. Looking forward to them posts.

There are petulant children who are going to throw a tantrum no matter what. Make precursors too hard to get, and the game sucks because it requires too much grinding. Make precursors too easy to get, and the game sucks because it panders to casuals. It’s literally a lose/lose scenario. If I were the devs I’d not let the whining cacophony from the peanut gallery sway me too far from my original vision.

Agreed. Some people on the forums lately have been down-right hostile, which is shocking.

These coming patches could bring so much to the game, fix so many issues, and yet people will still complain.

Colin Today:

Hey guys,

Just a quick update on where the whole scavenger hunt system stands since I know that’s a topic many of you have brought up recently. We’re not currently actively working on building any sort of legendary precursor scavenger hunt, this is something we want to do in the future and we’re in the midst of designing how this would function, but no one is actively building this feature and you should not expect in the Jan/Feb/March releases at this point.

Linsey Murdock A month ago:

I am definitely working on the precursor scavenger hunt!

Just add it to the list.

Munkee.3542:

Colin Today:

Hey guys,

Just a quick update on where the whole scavenger hunt system stands since I know that’s a topic many of you have brought up recently. We’re not currently actively working on building any sort of legendary precursor scavenger hunt, this is something we want to do in the future and we’re in the midst of designing how this would function, but no one is actively building this feature and you should not expect in the Jan/Feb/March releases at this point.

Linsey Murdock A month ago:

I am definitely working on the precursor scavenger hunt!

Just add it to the list.

A month ago, I think that Colin J. was Content Designer — today, he is the Game Director. Things change. Please stop looking for excuses to be offended.

The tin-foil-hat crowd will never be satisfied. ANet, please just keep going the way you are. The tin-foil-hats are over at the drop rate thread too – and also are working very hard to be offended. Par for the course.

People need to quit whining about a cosmetic.

If you want it, work for it. What is it worth if it is handed out? You act like this is the first game to implement a system where certain items are hard to get. Also, don’t try to pull the “gw1” crap because BDS and Froggies were just as RNG to obtain.

Also, I was able to buy a precursor without touching the Mystic Forge or playing the TP. I played the game, and sold my findings. If you spent as much time on the game as you do whining on the forums you might start seeing progress in game.

Thanks for the information Colin, I look forward to the blog post next week. Have a great weekend!

Nice but how about adjusting the price on the materials? It is getting more and more expensive each week and I am unable to catch up with the cost.

Example only!

Jan
Total 100 X items costs 60g

Feb 100 X items costs 80g

March 100 X items costs 110g

Really? Will I ever get to finish farming? So much grinding!

Meanwhile, our or everyone gold income from dungeons and events is approx 10g per day average, it’s not like in real world that the minimum income increases every year so does the gas.

But here is like Gas keeps going up but our income stay constant. It’s really tiring!

I’ve been farming about 4-5 hours per day since October 2012 (after I hit 80 to go after legendary).

Hahahahha….hahahahahahahahahaha!

I feel bad for the people who thought RNG Wars was actually going to reward their effort instead of their luck in the coming updates.

Munkee.3542:

Colin Today:

Hey guys,

Just a quick update on where the whole scavenger hunt system stands since I know that’s a topic many of you have brought up recently. We’re not currently actively working on building any sort of legendary precursor scavenger hunt, this is something we want to do in the future and we’re in the midst of designing how this would function, but no one is actively building this feature and you should not expect in the Jan/Feb/March releases at this point.

Linsey Murdock A month ago:

I am definitely working on the precursor scavenger hunt!

Just add it to the list.

This should be posted on every website that rates games just to show how little respect the players get from ANET. And this is from someone who LOVES GW1 and GW2.

Munkee.3542:

Colin Today:

Hey guys,

Just a quick update on where the whole scavenger hunt system stands since I know that’s a topic many of you have brought up recently. We’re not currently actively working on building any sort of legendary precursor scavenger hunt, this is something we want to do in the future and we’re in the midst of designing how this would function, but no one is actively building this feature and you should not expect in the Jan/Feb/March releases at this point.

Linsey Murdock A month ago:

I am definitely working on the precursor scavenger hunt!

Just add it to the list.

Or more accurately:

LinseyMurdock.4165:

I am definitely working on the precursor scavenger hunt!

ColinJohanson.2394:

we’re in the midst of designing how this would function, but no one is actively building this feature

Linsey could be ‘working on’ the feature without ‘actively building’ it. Design is part of the process. Programming and implementation is another.

To be honest i don’t know what all the fuss is about… Legendary..?
Don’t make me laugh there is totally NOTHING legendary about getting one,
you could stand all day in LA in the TP doing your dodgy TP flipping deals all day every day, never once setting foot in a dungeon… WvW… or the pve world..
And still get one after only a few weeks wheeling and dealing on the markets..
I have a suggestion for Legendary armour though if it ever comes about in the game… make it look like a Wall st traders suit… thats all the people in this game that will ever get it ;p
I always hoped for this game the trip to getting a Legendary would be just that.. Legendary, full of epic battles and searches, and going places to find rare parts to forge together slowly to make this awesome weapon.. how disapointing it turned out to be.. {end of rant}

We’ve heard this “rewards will improve” story before, when dungeon loot was supposedly improved. Running level 40 fractals with 55% magic find, I find maybe 3-5 rares on a full run and then there is the maw chest with a couple cores and (what seems to always be) a random piece of Medium (only type I don’t need) armor.

Let’s see some items and some statistics. ANet’s qualitative statements have, for very many of us players, lost credibility.

Bonefield.9813:

critickitten.1498:

And you’re telling us that you’re not going to address this problem for at least three more months? And your only effective step towards fixing this problem is to introduce even more “incredibly rare RNG drop” locations for precursors in the coming months?

That’s not what he said. He said that they weren’t specifically working on a scavenger hunt for precursors, but that the issues with getting them would begin to be addressed. I think it’s best to wait and see what the “new reward systems” consist of before assuming they’re just going to add them as rare drops to more locations.

How exactly is a “new rewards system” going to fix the problem of precursors depending heavily on terrible loot tables?

Keep in mind that they previously introduced a patch into the game which would make it so that veteran and champion mobs always drop rewards, and claimed it would improve the loot tables. Yet all statistical analysis via repeated sampling suggests that neither of these things are true, in fact, loot tables are worse than when the game first released.

I’m not going to deny I’m curious what will be done as far as this “new rewards system”, but right now, I haven’t seen anything to suggest that the upcoming patches will improve the rate of precursor drops much, if at all.

Krimpton.4879:

I always hoped for this game the trip to getting a Legendary would be just that.. Legendary, full of epic battles and searches, and going places to find rare parts to forge together slowly to make this awesome weapon.. how disapointing it turned out to be.. {end of rant}

I also EXPECTED this, and I’m still hoping for it someday.

I want more ADVENTURES. Something on the level of GW1’s Beyond Content (but with more exploration), where you had a chain of quests/ adventures that make you revisit a lot of old areas, had to go through difficult/ skillful but rewarding content and had a new story/ narrative to follow, with a fat set of rewards at the end of the story, and an optional (ONLY optional) grind to duplicate those rewards. The grinding was really just an optional extra for farmers, power-grinders or perfectionists. Your average player would simply go for the adventure.

Currently, most of GW2’s content revolves around mindless grinding for rare drops. You explore maps for the sake of a mathematical % number, with little lore/ story-telling/ difficulty/ reward behind them. You zerg events and pray for half decent loot. You fight one or two satisfying champion battles with a random group, but you stop when you realize none of them has rewarded you with anything worthwhile. And then you grind for materials, you grave-rush and grind the dungeons, and “grind” the TP for the lack of better options.

I love GW2’s concepts and combat system, but the systems that make you (want to) progress through the game are still very bare-bones (and this includes other systems not discussed in this thread, like the unexciting personal character growth systems and the scarce story instances).

Xynn.2748:

Running level 40 fractals with 55% magic find, I find maybe 3-5 rares on a full run

Seriously ??? that’s a lot of things you got there sir. Because if you do some math you know that 55% is F#%# small bonus…

Example:
drop rate of Corrupted core is like 0.0025 chance to drop it( random number)
Since you have 55% chance to get this item… You got 0.0040 chance to get this items..
even 100% wouldn’t make BIG difference, but yeah difference is.. but fairly small..
This is still 0.0040 drop chance to get something… Use some logic dude.. That’s why i don’t use MF and i rather kill 20 more mobs.

Just did fotm lvl10 right now (my actual level is 50 now) and got: 6 rares and 3 exotics, this never happened before, even less in higher levels… I feel so confused about fractals because of this, can someone explain why I get better rewards doing lower level fractals?

critickitten.1498:

How exactly is a “new rewards system” going to fix the problem of precursors depending heavily on terrible loot tables?

I thought Colin’s post was pretty clear cut on this…. did you actually read it?

ColinJohanson.2394:

We are however working on expanding reward systems to make them more re-rewarding across all parts of the game, making the open world more rewarding, and adding new ways you can earn precursors as rewards via new reward systems taking advantage of our open persistent world.

Ehra.5240:

critickitten.1498:

How exactly is a “new rewards system” going to fix the problem of precursors depending heavily on terrible loot tables?

I thought Colin’s post was pretty clear cut on this…. did you actually read it?

ColinJohanson.2394:

We are however working on expanding reward systems to make them more re-rewarding across all parts of the game, making the open world more rewarding, and adding new ways you can earn precursors as rewards via new reward systems taking advantage of our open persistent world.

Yes, I read it. But it seems you have a very interesting definition of “clear cut”.

That statement says absolutely nothing about how this will fix the problem of precursors being subject to the whims of the RNG, all it says is that there will be “new ways” to obtain them. All that really implies is that they will be adding precursors as possible drops to more locations in the game….but if they’re still absurdly rare drops, then you didn’t really fix the problem.

Legendaries should not boil down to RNG or TP, that doesn’t guarantee that the very best players get them. There’s no reason that they can’t introduce a system that relies on skill….and the only proposed solution that would at least take steps to move us towards such a system is not in active development.

So yes, I am getting a little bit worried to say the least. I’m glad they’re looking into it, but given the exact words he said, I’m not confident that we’re going to see anything more than just extra drop locations. I think you’re hyping yourself up for something that probably won’t happen.

ColinJohanson.2394:

To clarify since I think these two statements could be confusing without context, Linsey is indeed working on designing the system by which we’d add precursor scavenger hunts to the game. We are not actively implementing that design yet, it hasn’t been finalized, and building it that will involve a much larger team.

No conflicting statements here, as a game designer when they are working on something, usually that means they are designing it, as that is their job.

Good catch and thank you for asking for clarity!

I think there has to be some change in communication. People speculate a lot about things they get from you… small bits. There is just too much emphasis on things you are bringing in the future far far away and we actually don’t know much about the things that are coming soon.

What I’m trying to say: people shouldn’t learn from you about things which are sooo far in the future, but instead we should have something to look forward too in the next update.

Emphasize the next patch, on things that are likely to see the light of the day. There must be more of those upcoming near changes/new additions which are 95% in the next patch… why not be more transparent about it? Otherwise people just get disappointed, like hearing from you something which sounds too good to be true (scavenger hunt) and then… “yeah, we aren’t releasing it in the next 10 months”

don’t tell us what’s not in the patch, tell us what actually is (specifics, not like: we are working on the old world to make it more fun; but: we’re doing this and that and try that, but are not sure if this works out).

critickitten.1498:

How exactly is a “new rewards system” going to fix the problem of precursors depending heavily on terrible loot tables?

Because Colin said that one of the things the new systems were meant to address is availability of precursors. Whether or not that works out in practice remains to be seen, but it sounds like they’re doing massive work on how loot is awarded throughout the game, which is promising. The issue with precursors only being available through extremely slim chance reflects a game-wide problem with their current reward systems. Colin is talking about their plans to make improvements to those systems. That’s good.

A scavenger hunt was one of the things they wanted to do in order to address the precursor issue, but it was never stated to be the sole solution they were working on (and I’d be pretty disappointed if that were the case). What Colin is saying is that they’re implementing new ways to get precursors—just not that particular one. And I’m glad that they’re focusing on overall rewards in the open world. While having a scavenger hunt to get a precursor would be nice, it doesn’t fix the bigger problem, which is that efficiency and fun are at odds for a lot of players and luck plays far too much of a role in the game. The whole system needs tightening up, because right now the solution for almost anything cool you might want boils down to, “Save up your money until you can buy it from the person who won the lottery.”

critickitten.1498:

So yes, I am getting a little bit worried to say the least. I’m glad they’re looking into it, but given the exact words he said, I’m not confident that we’re going to see anything more than just extra drop locations. I think you’re hyping yourself up for something that probably won’t happen.

There’s not many places they could put them as just an “extra drop location.” They already have a chance to drop from chests, the MF, and as a world drop, which is true for most exotics. The problem is with drops in general, since you have people who have played 600+ hours and have never had an exotic drop, and then on top of the small chance to get an exotic, you also have a much, much smaller chance to get a precursor. That is an issue with how they’ve implemented rewards.

critickitten.1498:

Ehra.5240:

critickitten.1498:

How exactly is a “new rewards system” going to fix the problem of precursors depending heavily on terrible loot tables?

I thought Colin’s post was pretty clear cut on this…. did you actually read it?

ColinJohanson.2394:

We are however working on expanding reward systems to make them more re-rewarding across all parts of the game, making the open world more rewarding, and adding new ways you can earn precursors as rewards via new reward systems taking advantage of our open persistent world.

Yes, I read it. But it seems you have a very interesting definition of “clear cut”.

That statement says absolutely nothing about how this will fix the problem of precursors being subject to the whims of the RNG, all it says is that there will be “new ways” to obtain them. All that really implies is that they will be adding precursors as possible drops to more locations in the game.

I personally can’t see how you’d see:

• New reward system
• Rewarding across all parts of the game (read in my eyes as PvE, WvW, SPvP)
• New ways to earn precursors

As more RNG, when the only way to create precursors at the moment is through RNG.

A reward system, in my eyes, is a definite. You do something, you get rewarded for it. Maybe in the case of the precursors, you have to build up your rewards.

It’s also possible he doesn’t want to go into specifics because:

• It’ll be in the upcoming blog posts
• It’ll be like the Legendary weapons, where we had to work the recipe out for ourselves.

Bonefield.9813:

critickitten.1498:

How exactly is a “new rewards system” going to fix the problem of precursors depending heavily on terrible loot tables?

Because Colin said that one of the things the new systems were meant to address is availability of precursors. Whether or not that works out in practice remains to be seen, but it sounds like they’re doing massive work on how loot is awarded throughout the game, which is promising. The issue with precursors only being available through extremely slim chance reflects a game-wide problem with their current reward systems. Colin is talking about their plans to make improvements to those systems. That’s good.

A scavenger hunt was one of the things they wanted to do in order to address the precursor issue, but it was never stated to be the sole solution they were working on (and I’d be pretty disappointed if that were the case). What Colin is saying is that they’re implementing new ways to get precursors—just not that particular one. And I’m glad that they’re focusing on overall rewards in the open world. While having a scavenger hunt to get a precursor would be nice, it doesn’t fix the bigger problem, which is that efficiency and fun are at odds for a lot of players and luck plays far too much of a role in the game. The whole system needs tightening up, because right now the solution for almost anything cool you might want boils down to, “Save up your money until you can buy it from the person who won the lottery.”

It seems we don’t disagree for the most part.

What we disagree on, it seems, is what to expect in the coming months. You seem fairly optimistic that the upcoming changes will make a significant difference in the way precursors are being handled right now. As for me….I was hyped about these patches when it was announced that it was an expansion’s worth of content, but ever since, we’ve seen a decent number of posts that feel like the devs are trying to downplay the size and content of the releases, which instantly has me worrying.

I understand that they can’t just spoil the releases before they happen, but some specificity would do wonders here. Right now, all we’ve been told is that it’s kind of an expansion’s worth of content but not really, and there’s no races, professions, or zones, and no scavenger hunt. So beyond “changes to dungeons and loot tables”, we’ve got nothing to go on.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

I think there has to be some change in communication. People speculate a lot about things they get from you… small bits. There is just too much emphasis on things you are bringing in the future far far away and we actually don’t know much about the things that are coming soon.

No, I think there needs to be some change in speculation! We are getting information straight from the devs that are working on projects that are months or years of work.. However, the community extrapolates the smallest comment and makes predictions about what it all means and when their theoretical predictions will come to fruition. Software development is complex and we haveve just been lucky so far to have sneak peeks at what cool things they are working on. The problem is that once we get a glipse, we want it immediately (never asking how much coding is behind it)

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Emphasize the next patch, on things that are likely to see the light of the day. There must be more of those upcoming near changes/new additions which are 95% in the next patch… why not be more transparent about it? Otherwise people just get disappointed, like hearing from you something which sounds too good to be true (scavenger hunt) and then… “yeah, we aren’t releasing it in the next 10 months”

don’t tell us what’s not in the patch, tell us what actually is (specifics, not like: we are working on the old world to make it more fun; but: we’re doing this and that and try that, but are not sure if this works out).

The problem with that idea is that they won’t know what the 95% is until weeks before launch. And that is just what we are getting. Next week we’ll get the details because they will be >95% sure that it will be in the patch. If they tell us that something is gonna be there early in the month and then it fails QA testing… what then? There will be way more QQ about being told something will be there and then isn’t. ArenaNet is actually doing the right thing by running all new content through QA and then making a formal announcement for the update.

The point is this… we have to treat all comments from dev as “sneak peaks” with no expressed or implied release time and that is that. Otherwise you’ve set your expectations too high.

critickitten.1498:

It seems we don’t disagree for the most part.

What we disagree on, it seems, is what to expect in the coming months. You seem fairly optimistic that the upcoming changes will make a significant difference in the way precursors are being handled right now.

To be honest, I’m not. I have no specific expectations as to what’s going to happen, and at most I’m just happy that they see what some of the problems are and want to address them. My only points were that Colin did say they were working on the precursor issue, even if the scavenger hunt specifically won’t be in for a while, and that since precursors can currently drop just about anywhere (albeit with an extremely low chance), “new reward systems” probably doesn’t translate to adding new areas for them to drop.

I’m going to wait until next week when I see solid information before I decide to be super hyped or super discouraged.

I was concerned by Colin’s initial statement but the clarification is comforting. Linsey never gave a time line and the only indication she gave was actually a conservative reminder not to expect it any time soon because she has a lot of work on her plate. Personally I think legendaries are one of the least relevant elements of GW2 atm. Sure, to many people they are the biggest ticket item end game has to offer, but their current design does very little to favour actively playing in the world beyond stream lining map completion and then figuring out the fastest way to make money to buy the rest of the legendary. They seem to bypass or ignore so much of the content on offer and the things that make up this game (like killing the megadestroyer, taking down the champion troll, completing that random chain event you came across in Iron Marches etc) have little relevance once you’ve completed the levelling process. Karma is either worthless or needed in such large amounts only the most efficient chain events are worth completing/farming (this means ignoring 95% of DEs, especially if it’s a champion) and it’s easy to feel like you are wasting your time if you’re not flipping items on the TP, running from node to node, chain farming events in a zerg or endlessly repeating a certain dungeon in the most efficient way possible.

So much of the way the game is currently designed is funnelling players into a handful of areas, with most of the content being ignored in favour of a handful of areas and too much of the content boils down to RNG gambling through junk rather than playing and being rewarded for your time.

The idea of new reward systems taking advantage of the persistent world is one I find to have great potential, but it’s also very vague. After the ascended gear dissapointment I expect a lot of ArenaNet decisision to be founded on “it has higher stats, isn’t this content great,” rather than truly good game design, but putting the focus back on the persistent world and any attempts to bring it closer to FotM and dungeons feels like a step in the right direction. Hopefully it doesn’t fall under the curse of crazy insane grind to get anything of value because ArenaNet thinks repeating the same thing over and over is the same thing as creating new and interesting content.

Meaning some of their best work…mine too, is usually done about 930 in the am once the morning coffee starts to work its intestinal magic. Seriously my computer desk is litered with remnants of toilet paper (un-used) where postit’s should be.

My god I just had a brainstorm I think I’ll invent toilet paper that doubles as postits.

critickitten.1498:

That statement says absolutely nothing about how this will fix the problem of precursors being subject to the whims of the RNG, all it says is that there will be “new ways” to obtain them.

You said you don’t see how the new system will " fix the problem of precursors depending heavily on terrible loot tables." I think it’s safe to say that when a dev says they are working on a new reward system that will grant precursors, they mean that there will be a new way to obtain them that does not rely on you killing monsters until it drops. That is what “new reward system” tends to imply, that it will be different from the current method of obtaining them. But if you want to keep assuming it’s not going to change anything at all and when they say “new reward system” they actually mean “we’re just going to buff a few loot tables and call it a day” then I guess that works too.

Xynn.2748:

We’ve heard this “rewards will improve” story before, when dungeon loot was supposedly improved. Running level 40 fractals with 55% magic find, I find maybe 3-5 rares on a full run and then there is the maw chest with a couple cores and (what seems to always be) a random piece of Medium (only type I don’t need) armor.

The fractals of the mists dungeons improvements haven’t been released yet….the article says its coming at the end of january,so that means it will be coming in this months content patch.

Anyways, im a bit dissapointed the scavenger hunt isnt in the upcoming updates but im still confident that what they will release will improve the core game A LOT.