Engineer is love, Engineer is life.
Why Anet?
On the other hand, why do people await everything to be gotten easily? do you automatically get full-geared characters when you start a new character in other MMOs? do they unlock everything for you? You already have played the game before, therefore you have no excuse for spending some extra time in dungeons to get gold and therefore unlocking the traits.
Why do you assume people await EVERYTHING handed to them EASILY? The guy leveled a character to 80 just using tomes he probably got from sPVP and crafting. Give him some credit!
Anet advertised this game as grind free. Now, it so happens that you level to 80 and have to grind gold before getting the traits that will allow you to be useful in WvW. Sounds familiar? sounds like classic mmo raiding to me.
To make it worse, the events you have to clear to unlock the traits are on a timer or whatever, so you just cannot pop up, use whatever skills you have, and complete the event. You are requested to camp the map in the hope the event will start and enough people will show up to clear it. GENIUS!
I just feel lucky most of my characters were created before this stupid change struck.
So, in order to utilise what is considered a core system/mechanic of the game, you need some level of careful planning, and not wasting gold on skins, or skill points on unnecessary items and skills. In some ways fair enough, but should a new player be expected to have be so focused on unlocking this one system that they neglect the “fun” bits of the game? As for only using skill points on the necessary skills, I suggest part of the fun of the game is experimenting, finding the skills you enjoy and feel are useful. For that, you need to experiment and unlock them. Should new players be expected to just follow some build and skillset found on the internet? or should they be allowed to learn the game their way?
Now, that assumes that the unlock method is purchasing only. In reality, i’d expect a new player to go ont he hunt, and in all likelihood, for the most part enjoy it. The principle of the system is fairly sound. Explore the world, work an event/scenario/whatever to unlock a skill, and away we go. It should be organic. The problem is that the requirements for certain, particularly lower level traits can be excessive. I believe its fine to have some serious effort behind unlocking the top traits. its the culmination of a long journey, and it deserves a strong ending. But such requirements for adept traits? That I find ridiculous. That and the level needed to unlock certain traits (in that they are found in zones well above the unlock level for using that tier) to be a barrier to experimentation. Its a nice idea, and as with many things, just poorly executed.
As for the cost of unlocking. The gold side can be excessive for new players. The idea ofusing dungeons etc to get gold is fine, but new players without traits may find it hard to get into the groups to do them. That is depending on enjoying dungeons as well, something that reputedly is not as used as perhaps Anet may want. Of course, using a mix of unlocking by effort and gold/skillpoints can create a medium.
But what of altoholics? After a few runs at unlocking via the hard way, it can become tedious. Repeating tasks like that do that naturally. Its times like that, that people turn the easy way as a way of doing it quickly and avoiding a bit of a slog. For those with a lot of alts, it appears that Anet are penalising us for having a lot of alts, which for many altoholics can be roughly translated into being penalised for buying a lot of gems. Of course, as number of characters increase, the amount of gold to get them up increases, that is natural, but to look at it from a purely personal perspective, it comes to far.
I have the full 64 character slots. 26 of my current set of characters existed before the April patch. They are grandfathered in. Ok, they miss out on the new traits tat were added, but by and large they are complete. I also did the new unlocking on one alt after, and took a while at it. For purposes of this, thats 27 characters with all traits unlocked, leaving 37 that are clean sheets. Sure, I can just unlock the necessary skills for a build, but I like having my characters having some sense of individuality, in terms of look and abilities, plus I like to experiment with things, mix them up. If I was to go about unlocking all traits, I would need a grand total of 1591g, and 13320 skill points.
I’ll be honest, I’ve only just now worked that out, and I’m actually a little in shock at that cost. That isn’t an insignificant amount. Sure, my own silly fault for having so many alts, but at the same time, thats a lot of money I’ve spent on the game. End of the day, new players who are just out to explore and feel their way through are penalised, and so are those who enjoy alts. Anet have themselves acknowledged a lot of those issues in the mega-thread. Its the fact that they acknowledge the issues but then seemingly do nothing by way of addressing those issues I find disrespectful to the customers/players.
Divinity’s Reach is home to some top-tier criminal masterminds.
The kind of people who will set an orphanage on fire after locking themselves inside it.
The kind of people who will set an orphanage on fire after locking themselves inside it.
How about you…. Go through look up what traits you think you might want? And unlock those first to try out your build. Or go into Heart of the mists and play around in there with different ones until you find some you like. Then either go out and collect THOSE traits doing whatever it takes to get them or simply buy them? And then later on get more as you grow with learning your new profession. Its not that expensive at all. You prepared the tomes and crafting mats/money to level why didn’t you go all the way with skill point scrolls and the needed money for the traits?
I’ve made several new characters and while I don’t really care for the new trait system there are ways around it.
How about we buy 3 manuals for less than 5g and have everything. Like the game had at launch and for the first 18 months of the game.
The new trait system is complete trash and the only reason there isn’t the same kitten storm as with the gem fiasco is because many vets didn’t realize how bad a change it was until way down the road because they were grandfathered in. So instead of everyone going bat kitten crazy over it day one, they are instead slowly souring. Its a horrible change that is detrimental to the game in the long term.
So, in order to utilise what is considered a core system/mechanic of the game, you need some level of careful planning, and not wasting gold on skins, or skill points on unnecessary items and skills. In some ways fair enough, but should a new player be expected to have be so focused on unlocking this one system that they neglect the “fun” bits of the game? As for only using skill points on the necessary skills, I suggest part of the fun of the game is experimenting, finding the skills you enjoy and feel are useful. For that, you need to experiment and unlock them. Should new players be expected to just follow some build and skillset found on the internet? or should they be allowed to learn the game their way?
Now, that assumes that the unlock method is purchasing only. In reality, i’d expect a new player to go ont he hunt, and in all likelihood, for the most part enjoy it. The principle of the system is fairly sound. Explore the world, work an event/scenario/whatever to unlock a skill, and away we go. It should be organic. The problem is that the requirements for certain, particularly lower level traits can be excessive. I believe its fine to have some serious effort behind unlocking the top traits. its the culmination of a long journey, and it deserves a strong ending. But such requirements for adept traits? That I find ridiculous. That and the level needed to unlock certain traits (in that they are found in zones well above the unlock level for using that tier) to be a barrier to experimentation. Its a nice idea, and as with many things, just poorly executed.
As for the cost of unlocking. The gold side can be excessive for new players. The idea ofusing dungeons etc to get gold is fine, but new players without traits may find it hard to get into the groups to do them. That is depending on enjoying dungeons as well, something that reputedly is not as used as perhaps Anet may want. Of course, using a mix of unlocking by effort and gold/skillpoints can create a medium.
But what of altoholics? After a few runs at unlocking via the hard way, it can become tedious. Repeating tasks like that do that naturally. Its times like that, that people turn the easy way as a way of doing it quickly and avoiding a bit of a slog. For those with a lot of alts, it appears that Anet are penalising us for having a lot of alts, which for many altoholics can be roughly translated into being penalised for buying a lot of gems. Of course, as number of characters increase, the amount of gold to get them up increases, that is natural, but to look at it from a purely personal perspective, it comes to far.
I have the full 64 character slots. 26 of my current set of characters existed before the April patch. They are grandfathered in. Ok, they miss out on the new traits tat were added, but by and large they are complete. I also did the new unlocking on one alt after, and took a while at it. For purposes of this, thats 27 characters with all traits unlocked, leaving 37 that are clean sheets. Sure, I can just unlock the necessary skills for a build, but I like having my characters having some sense of individuality, in terms of look and abilities, plus I like to experiment with things, mix them up. If I was to go about unlocking all traits, I would need a grand total of 1591g, and 13320 skill points.
I’ll be honest, I’ve only just now worked that out, and I’m actually a little in shock at that cost. That isn’t an insignificant amount. Sure, my own silly fault for having so many alts, but at the same time, thats a lot of money I’ve spent on the game. End of the day, new players who are just out to explore and feel their way through are penalised, and so are those who enjoy alts. Anet have themselves acknowledged a lot of those issues in the mega-thread. Its the fact that they acknowledge the issues but then seemingly do nothing by way of addressing those issues I find disrespectful to the customers/players.
Very nice post, I totally agree with that last part. When they switched to the new trait system it created many problems. They acknowledged the problems and have done practically nothing for 8 months except tell us to keep giving them suggestions. If they would just adjust 1 trait a week, or even 1 trait a month to be in a more appropriate level/zone for the level of trait it would be nice. It would still be bullkitten that we have to play with this new system but at least then it would show they are trying. The lack of communication and the lack of anything being done is just a big middle finger to all of the player/customer base. How anyone can defend them with out getting paid is beyond my comprehension.