Guild Wars 2

I’m kinda diggin’ the announcement that achievements will have value, even if it ultimately ends up being nothing but cosmetic stuff. However, I’m a bit concerned that my 4200+ points will go -poof-.

So, do we get tokens for our existing points? Is the exchange going to be 1 to 1?

Inquiring kittens want to know!

p.s. Are there going to be a lot of new ways to get achievements added? I am kinda running out of them…

If all that I did would just get wiped it would kind of make me feel sad. I want to get those dyes for achievement points!

I’d appreciate this. Having four level 80s and two World Completions, it feels pretty lame knowing that if I had waiting until this had come along I would have been far more rewarded.

I highly doubt they’d reset achievement points. The rage that would ensue woudl be more than the ascended updates in November.

More than likely they’ll pull the data of how many achievement points one has per account, and then mail you tokens (if it’s an item)

Good questions and Id love to know the answer to this. However, Im sure we all have 100 questions and would hate to see the forums fill up with these :p

Mirta.5029:

If all that I did would just get wiped it would kind of make me feel sad. I want to get those dyes for achievement points!

Heh. Seeing those dyes in the screenshot made me promptly go sell all my existing un-id’d dyes. I have a sneakin’ suspicious the price of dye is finally going to start going down.

Looks like waiting to level alts was the smart move.

It always is.

ColinJohanson.2394:

However, there are some achievements which are infinitely repeatable currently. It is highly likely so this new system isn’t broken we’ll need to cap those and people who have made insane progress down one of those lines will lose some of their progress to get back to the cap. I wouldn’t recommend anyone go bonkers trying to progress an infinitely repeatable achievement category in anticipation of the release of this system, as you will likely lose some points/progress if you take it to an extreme number.

If that happens at any time of updates, I am instantly quitting gw2. You should make count only done achievements and omit repeatable achievements. Stop taking achieved things from people who spent significant time doing them.

Exiled.6901:

ColinJohanson.2394:

However, there are some achievements which are infinitely repeatable currently. It is highly likely so this new system isn’t broken we’ll need to cap those and people who have made insane progress down one of those lines will lose some of their progress to get back to the cap. I wouldn’t recommend anyone go bonkers trying to progress an infinitely repeatable achievement category in anticipation of the release of this system, as you will likely lose some points/progress if you take it to an extreme number.

If that happens at any time of updates, I am instantly quitting gw2. You should make count only done achievements and omit repeatable achievements. Stop taking achieved things from people who spent significant time doing them.

If you’re going to quit the game over a measley achievement system, then perhaps you shouldn’t be playing the game to begin with

Anybody else remembers that guy ,that salvaged his way to 20000+ achievement points, and then posted several threads about it?
I’m pretty sure he spent over 1000g.
LOL!

Vol.5241:

Exiled.6901:

ColinJohanson.2394:

However, there are some achievements which are infinitely repeatable currently. It is highly likely so this new system isn’t broken we’ll need to cap those and people who have made insane progress down one of those lines will lose some of their progress to get back to the cap. I wouldn’t recommend anyone go bonkers trying to progress an infinitely repeatable achievement category in anticipation of the release of this system, as you will likely lose some points/progress if you take it to an extreme number.

If that happens at any time of updates, I am instantly quitting gw2. You should make count only done achievements and omit repeatable achievements. Stop taking achieved things from people who spent significant time doing them.

If you’re going to quit the game over a measley achievement system, then perhaps you shouldn’t be playing the game to begin with

Well who are you to tell me what to play this game for? Its obvious different people play for different reasons. I like making achievement points so this thing is important for me.

The only infinitely repeatable achievement I can think of is Agent of Entropy that you get for salvaging stuff. Playing normally (ie. never going out of my way to salvage stuff), I’ve gotten 140 points out of 4224 total points. I salvage everything that vendors for less than 90c.

If all I lose is those 140 points, I’d be okay with it. However, I’m not sure that I’d qualify as someone who went crazy. It’s 2 points per 200 salvages. So, I’m at about 14,000 items salvaged.

Also, based on the screenshot and the value of dailies (9) and monthlies (35), it looks like you can get a nice amount of stuff each month with the 305 points you’d get for completing 30 dailies and the monthly.

Really looking forward to this.

Exiled.6901:

Vol.5241:

Exiled.6901:

ColinJohanson.2394:

However, there are some achievements which are infinitely repeatable currently. It is highly likely so this new system isn’t broken we’ll need to cap those and people who have made insane progress down one of those lines will lose some of their progress to get back to the cap. I wouldn’t recommend anyone go bonkers trying to progress an infinitely repeatable achievement category in anticipation of the release of this system, as you will likely lose some points/progress if you take it to an extreme number.

If that happens at any time of updates, I am instantly quitting gw2. You should make count only done achievements and omit repeatable achievements. Stop taking achieved things from people who spent significant time doing them.

If you’re going to quit the game over a measley achievement system, then perhaps you shouldn’t be playing the game to begin with

Well who are you to tell me what to play this game for? Its obvious different people play for different reasons. I like making achievement points so this thing is important for me.

I think Exiled is right here, people spending so much time on achievement points and then being stripped of them is wrong, there are some players in my guild that didnt miss one daily, and were/are achievement hunters, at least they should be rewarded accordingly.

Remember the Halloween jumping puzzle? I hope I don’t end up having to do it again.

ColinJohanson.2394:

However, there are some achievements which are infinitely repeatable currently. It is highly likely so this new system isn’t broken we’ll need to cap those and people who have made insane progress down one of those lines will lose some of their progress to get back to the cap. I wouldn’t recommend anyone go bonkers trying to progress an infinitely repeatable achievement category in anticipation of the release of this system, as you will likely lose some points/progress if you take it to an extreme number.

I’d prefer to see a diminishing return on infinite achievements (even if it diminishes to zero) than have people lose achievement progress. I like looking and seeing how many times I’ve earned Agent of Entropy!

ColinJohanson.2394:

Xavori.3768:

The only infinitely repeatable achievement I can think of is Agent of Entropy that you get for salvaging stuff. Playing normally (ie. never going out of my way to salvage stuff), I’ve gotten 140 points out of 4224 total points. I salvage everything that vendors for less than 90c.

If all I lose is those 140 points, I’d be okay with it. However, I’m not sure that I’d qualify as someone who went crazy. It’s 2 points per 200 salvages. So, I’m at about 14,000 items salvaged.

Also, based on the screenshot and the value of dailies (9) and monthlies (35), it looks like you can get a nice amount of stuff each month with the 305 points you’d get for completing 30 dailies and the monthly.

Really looking forward to this.

Just want to quickly point out to get out ahead of it since those numbers are wildly off. You receive 1 crown per daily, and 10 per monthly. (We’re also still tweaking the costs of the items shown in the screen shot, and will continue to adjust them until until the system is released.)

Gotcha. So not the same as the current points.

Thanks for clarifying.

40 points per month…two and half months to get kitten potion if that price stays the same. Hmm. Better be a really cool potion

ColinJohanson.2394:

The initial version will only be for daily/monthly achievements (this will not be retroactively rewarded.) Later you’ll see a system in place that rewards more expanded achievements points which will retroactively reward all achievements already earned, yes.

However, there are some achievements which are infinitely repeatable currently. It is highly likely so this new system isn’t broken we’ll need to cap those and people who have made insane progress down one of those lines will lose some of their progress to get back to the cap. I wouldn’t recommend anyone go bonkers trying to progress an infinitely repeatable achievement category in anticipation of the release of this system, as you will likely lose some points/progress if you take it to an extreme number.

We’re still working out the details on the system, so that’s about as far into detail as I can go currently.

This guy who posted his screenshoot with 10k achievement points earned by salvaging… he won’t be very happy xD

Darkdanjal.3401:

Exiled.6901:

Vol.5241:

Exiled.6901:

ColinJohanson.2394:

However, there are some achievements which are infinitely repeatable currently. It is highly likely so this new system isn’t broken we’ll need to cap those and people who have made insane progress down one of those lines will lose some of their progress to get back to the cap. I wouldn’t recommend anyone go bonkers trying to progress an infinitely repeatable achievement category in anticipation of the release of this system, as you will likely lose some points/progress if you take it to an extreme number.

If that happens at any time of updates, I am instantly quitting gw2. You should make count only done achievements and omit repeatable achievements. Stop taking achieved things from people who spent significant time doing them.

If you’re going to quit the game over a measley achievement system, then perhaps you shouldn’t be playing the game to begin with

Well who are you to tell me what to play this game for? Its obvious different people play for different reasons. I like making achievement points so this thing is important for me.

I think Exiled is right here, people spending so much time on achievement points and then being stripped of them is wrong, there are some players in my guild that didnt miss one daily, and were/are achievement hunters, at least they should be rewarded accordingly.

He wasn’t talking about the regular achievements, but those that are infinitely repeatable, such as agent of antropy.

The one guy here who had 20K achievement points spent well over 1000g in salvaging costs, so even if they were to erase those points, it would only affect those very few people who had the gold to do it.

Keiran.1896:

ColinJohanson.2394:

The initial version will only be for daily/monthly achievements (this will not be retroactively rewarded.) Later you’ll see a system in place that rewards more expanded achievements points which will retroactively reward all achievements already earned, yes.

However, there are some achievements which are infinitely repeatable currently. It is highly likely so this new system isn’t broken we’ll need to cap those and people who have made insane progress down one of those lines will lose some of their progress to get back to the cap. I wouldn’t recommend anyone go bonkers trying to progress an infinitely repeatable achievement category in anticipation of the release of this system, as you will likely lose some points/progress if you take it to an extreme number.

We’re still working out the details on the system, so that’s about as far into detail as I can go currently.

This guy who posted his screenshoot with 10k achievement points earned by salvaging… he won’t be very happy xD

He posted a screen shot with 20k+ points a while back.

Torres.2890:

He posted a screen shot with 20k+ points a while back.

Ouch xD they should not give any extra reward for farming those achievements but at least they should let the points.

I’m not so concerned, I have only 72 points in my salvaging achievement, but 20K xD the guy is gonna cry

So for 5 days of dailies I can buy… 10 unidentified, likely-to-be-garbage, dyes? This is in comparison to saving up for a couple months and getting a sweet prestigious minipet, or two weeks for some “Mystic Binding Agent” items, which will undoubtedly be linked somehow to ascended gear. A more comparable number of dyes for that level of effort would be 20. I find more than 10 Unidentified Dyes in a week just running around with no MF gear for but a few hours a day.

ColinJohanson.2394:

jwburks.9735:

Remember the Halloween jumping puzzle? I hope I don’t end up having to do it again.

You won’t lose any achievement progress and will get full credit for all that kind of thing, absolutely. The only stuff that might need to be capped are achievements that extend infinitely that a handful of people have taken to extreme levels, we’ll discuss other options as well but I think if an effort to be transparent, it’s better to get out ahead of expectations so no one is surprised.

Colin, will we still be rewarded for the things like map completetion? I am wondering if I should wait to level the last 3 of my alts and get 100% until after? Will that sort of thing be retroactive also?

Rising Dusk.2408:

So for 5 days of dailies I can buy… 10 unidentified, likely-to-be-garbage, dyes? This is in comparison to saving up for a couple months and getting a sweet prestigious minipet, or two weeks for some “Mystic Binding Agent” items, which will undoubtedly be linked somehow to ascended gear. A more comparable number of dyes for that level of effort would be 20. I find more than 10 Unidentified Dyes in a week just running around with no MF gear for but a few hours a day.

They’re still working out the conversion rates.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Xavori.3768:

The only infinitely repeatable achievement I can think of is Agent of Entropy that you get for salvaging stuff. Playing normally (ie. never going out of my way to salvage stuff), I’ve gotten 140 points out of 4224 total points. I salvage everything that vendors for less than 90c.

If all I lose is those 140 points, I’d be okay with it. However, I’m not sure that I’d qualify as someone who went crazy. It’s 2 points per 200 salvages. So, I’m at about 14,000 items salvaged.

Also, based on the screenshot and the value of dailies (9) and monthlies (35), it looks like you can get a nice amount of stuff each month with the 305 points you’d get for completing 30 dailies and the monthly.

Really looking forward to this.

Just want to quickly point out to get out ahead of it since those numbers are wildly off. You receive 1 crown per daily, and 10 per monthly. (We’re also still tweaking the costs of the items shown in the screen shot, and will continue to adjust them until until the system is released.)

Will we still get the mystic coins along with these new crowns? And will the current karma rewards be effected?

BTW I am loving the direction you are taking in rewarding open world exploration!.

It’ll be interesting how you will do this, considering that there are some people who exploited a method to gain insane amount of achievement points at the cost of nothing (only time spent repeating same actions, not referring to the salvaging achievement).

Hope those people won’t gain immense amount of crowns due to said exploit.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Xavori.3768:

The only infinitely repeatable achievement I can think of is Agent of Entropy that you get for salvaging stuff. Playing normally (ie. never going out of my way to salvage stuff), I’ve gotten 140 points out of 4224 total points. I salvage everything that vendors for less than 90c.

If all I lose is those 140 points, I’d be okay with it. However, I’m not sure that I’d qualify as someone who went crazy. It’s 2 points per 200 salvages. So, I’m at about 14,000 items salvaged.

Also, based on the screenshot and the value of dailies (9) and monthlies (35), it looks like you can get a nice amount of stuff each month with the 305 points you’d get for completing 30 dailies and the monthly.

Really looking forward to this.

Just want to quickly point out to get out ahead of it since those numbers are wildly off. You receive 1 crown per daily, and 10 per monthly. (We’re also still tweaking the costs of the items shown in the screen shot, and will continue to adjust them until until the system is released.)

how will the new system affect economy? Is it possible that whites and blues are profitable to sell for low level people only because some people are trying to abuse the “Agent of Entropy” achievement? Also another question – why is the monthly only give you 10 times the daily when it’s so much harder to complete?

Thanks for the clarification Colin. I know you’re busy and probably won’t respond to this one but I will try anyways:

Regarding the achievement currency: Will we be rewarded these tokens/points for completing ANY event/achievement thats in the game? Like, “Kill 100 dread” (awarded 10 points lets say), and Daily Event achievements alike? And can I do these achievements in any zone of the game(i.e. there wont be a specific zone day to day where these acheivement points can be obtained?)

Second question would be: With these achievement points, you mentioned purchasing ascended gear. Will the same ascended gear be available via achievement token purchases as is available via pristine fractal relic purchases? One will not be mutually exclusive to one type of content, correct? Could I simply ignore fractals and focus on playing in the world, gather my achievement tokens, and purchase my ascended items without stepping another foot inside a fractal if I wanted to?

Thanks a billion if you answer!

ColinJohanson.2394:

Tommyknocker.6089:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Xavori.3768:

The only infinitely repeatable achievement I can think of is Agent of Entropy that you get for salvaging stuff. Playing normally (ie. never going out of my way to salvage stuff), I’ve gotten 140 points out of 4224 total points. I salvage everything that vendors for less than 90c.

If all I lose is those 140 points, I’d be okay with it. However, I’m not sure that I’d qualify as someone who went crazy. It’s 2 points per 200 salvages. So, I’m at about 14,000 items salvaged.

Also, based on the screenshot and the value of dailies (9) and monthlies (35), it looks like you can get a nice amount of stuff each month with the 305 points you’d get for completing 30 dailies and the monthly.

Really looking forward to this.

Just want to quickly point out to get out ahead of it since those numbers are wildly off. You receive 1 crown per daily, and 10 per monthly. (We’re also still tweaking the costs of the items shown in the screen shot, and will continue to adjust them until until the system is released.)

Will we still get the mystic coins along with these new crowns? And will the current karma rewards be effected?

BTW I am loving the direction you are taking in rewarding open world exploration!.

You will still receive all the same rewards you currently get for your daily and monthly achievements, this will be an additional reward on top of it to make it more rewarding.

Hey man, good to see you around, I like your smile…

Is final rest in the game?:p, come visit us in the crafting forums to confirm ty ty mate.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Keiran.1896:

This guy who posted his screenshoot with 10k achievement points earned by salvaging… he won’t be very happy xD

Yeah we’ll need to figure out something for folks who do fall into that category, I just want to make sure to get out ahead of expectations so people don’t all feel they should now go rush off and have to do this (or other infinitely repeatable achievements.) We don’t want people to feel they need to play the game that way and have it be the best way to be rewarded.

I just got the best achievement ever ; getting quoted and answered by Colin Johanson on the forums

Anyway you should do that more often, it’s nice to see how you’re answering and clarifying things

Colin,

Thanks for being active in this thread. Many people have wished that ArenaNet would be more involved in the community, and communicate more with the players. The transparency you mentioned in your blog post is key.

Keep it up, and please encourage other staff members to spend some time on the forums frequently, too.

I suspect that the forums in general would be a much more positive place, as well!

I agree with Keiran. Even if my questions do not get answered, I love the activity Colin has in this single thread. Obviously he needs to be careful not to get our hopes up, or speak too much “grey”, but having a dev in here chatting with us is fantastic. Keep it up! IMO, the constant interaction a developer has with its community is what sets a game apart from the rest. Look at Trion. Not the most wildly successful MMO, although its doing very very well, but they are so well connected with their community. With developer activity in a thread like this, shows Anet is going down a similar path.

Suggestion: Make all developers spend time in the forums each week. The one or two with the most get to leave an hour early on Fridays, provided all of their work is done ofcourse!

Thanks Colin! All I know is that getting people into the existing, amazing, game world is a very very good thing. I hate to see such an awesome, detailed world get sidelined for dungeon repetition. I’d love to see all the meta events constantly being run.. & maybe even have more than 1 giant Meta Event per map!

The only reservations I have are on the number of rewards. These people eat content like candy.. The reward list should be MASSIVE so it lasts & there are things for everyone.

Groonz.7825:

It’ll be interesting how you will do this, considering that there are some people who exploited a method to gain insane amount of achievement points at the cost of nothing (only time spent repeating same actions, not referring to the salvaging achievement).

Hope those people won’t gain immense amount of crowns due to said exploit.

1.) It’s not an exploit

2.) At the cost of nothing? It cost a ton of money to get those stacks of salvagable items. To get one point achievement you need 200. That costs a lot if you want 20,000 points.

I only had two worries:

1. That already completed achievements might be ignored when a system using them is integrated.

2. That infinite achievements cause an imbalance.

Both issues have been seemingly be considered, so I am definitely looking forward to this.

DarksunG.9537:

Thanks Colin! All I know is that getting people into the existing, amazing, game world is a very very good thing. I hate to see such an awesome, detailed world get sidelined for dungeon repetition. I’d love to see all the meta events constantly being run.. & maybe even have more than 1 giant Meta Event per map!

The only reservations I have are on the number of rewards. These people eat content like candy.. The reward list should be MASSIVE so it lasts & there are things for everyone.

I agree. Give people an insane amount of things to browse and buy via these achievement tokens.

However, I will say that adding too many currencies is a BAD thing. A different currency for each dungeon, fractal relics, pristine fractal relics, achievement tokens, Kharma, Glory..am I missing any? Look at SWTOR. I could not keep up with the amount of different currencies in the game. It was overwhelming and not fun.

Suggestion: remove achievement tokens and make the items purchasable via the amount of achievement POINTS you have, or kharma. Give us a kharma sink. Its not like this is something new where we haven’t been clamoring for a kharma sink.

Darkdanjal.3401:

Exiled.6901:

Vol.5241:

Exiled.6901:

ColinJohanson.2394:

However, there are some achievements which are infinitely repeatable currently. It is highly likely so this new system isn’t broken we’ll need to cap those and people who have made insane progress down one of those lines will lose some of their progress to get back to the cap. I wouldn’t recommend anyone go bonkers trying to progress an infinitely repeatable achievement category in anticipation of the release of this system, as you will likely lose some points/progress if you take it to an extreme number.

If that happens at any time of updates, I am instantly quitting gw2. You should make count only done achievements and omit repeatable achievements. Stop taking achieved things from people who spent significant time doing them.

If you’re going to quit the game over a measley achievement system, then perhaps you shouldn’t be playing the game to begin with

Well who are you to tell me what to play this game for? Its obvious different people play for different reasons. I like making achievement points so this thing is important for me.

I think Exiled is right here, people spending so much time on achievement points and then being stripped of them is wrong, there are some players in my guild that didnt miss one daily, and were/are achievement hunters, at least they should be rewarded accordingly.

They did that knowing the points were just a #, so how are they “losing out”. a new system is being made to reward doin things, sounds like they just want a head start

Mirta.5029:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Xavori.3768:

The only infinitely repeatable achievement I can think of is Agent of Entropy that you get for salvaging stuff. Playing normally (ie. never going out of my way to salvage stuff), I’ve gotten 140 points out of 4224 total points. I salvage everything that vendors for less than 90c.

If all I lose is those 140 points, I’d be okay with it. However, I’m not sure that I’d qualify as someone who went crazy. It’s 2 points per 200 salvages. So, I’m at about 14,000 items salvaged.

Also, based on the screenshot and the value of dailies (9) and monthlies (35), it looks like you can get a nice amount of stuff each month with the 305 points you’d get for completing 30 dailies and the monthly.

Really looking forward to this.

Just want to quickly point out to get out ahead of it since those numbers are wildly off. You receive 1 crown per daily, and 10 per monthly. (We’re also still tweaking the costs of the items shown in the screen shot, and will continue to adjust them until until the system is released.)

how will the new system affect economy? Is it possible that whites and blues are profitable to sell for low level people only because some people are trying to abuse the “Agent of Entropy” achievement? Also another question – why is the monthly only give you 10 times the daily when it’s so much harder to complete?

It’s not that much harder. I completed this month’s monthly on day 2. I probably could have completed it on day one had I realized it was based on discovery of jumping puzzles, not completion. Previous months were harder though, I concur.

I actually wished the reward added something bonus beyond coins and jugs. Now it seems I’m getting that wish. Thanks devs/anet!

I have 418 in Agent of Entropy – with zero exploits. Lots of people who craft, farm or trade a lot will have several hundred in this achievement so I hope that is taken into account.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Tommyknocker.6089:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Xavori.3768:

The only infinitely repeatable achievement I can think of is Agent of Entropy that you get for salvaging stuff. Playing normally (ie. never going out of my way to salvage stuff), I’ve gotten 140 points out of 4224 total points. I salvage everything that vendors for less than 90c.

If all I lose is those 140 points, I’d be okay with it. However, I’m not sure that I’d qualify as someone who went crazy. It’s 2 points per 200 salvages. So, I’m at about 14,000 items salvaged.

Also, based on the screenshot and the value of dailies (9) and monthlies (35), it looks like you can get a nice amount of stuff each month with the 305 points you’d get for completing 30 dailies and the monthly.

Really looking forward to this.

Just want to quickly point out to get out ahead of it since those numbers are wildly off. You receive 1 crown per daily, and 10 per monthly. (We’re also still tweaking the costs of the items shown in the screen shot, and will continue to adjust them until until the system is released.)

Will we still get the mystic coins along with these new crowns? And will the current karma rewards be effected?

BTW I am loving the direction you are taking in rewarding open world exploration!.

You will still receive all the same rewards you currently get for your daily and monthly achievements, this will be an additional reward on top of it to make it more rewarding.

I’ve been religiously playing your game on a daily basis and have been getting the daily rewards almost every day. Will my past actions pay off? I love that I got my coins and sometimes other black lion items but is this one area where my persistence in the past pays off?

Also I have not missed a single monthly since release is that going to count as well?

Dreamslayer.7659:

I have 418 in Agent of Entropy – with zero exploits. Lots of people who craft, farm or trade a lot will have several hundred in this achievement so I hope that is taken into account.

Then you have nothing to lose from limiting the currently infinite achievements. You achieved those points through normal gameplay – meaning you didn’t lose any gold from buying salvage kits and gear with only the goal of salvaging achievement points. You were going to salvage anyways, for crafting.

The only people who are effected are those that salvaged for the goal of salvaging “pointless points”. Even those people gain something from this, as they will already have it capped and thus have the maximum amount of points from it. At least now those points will have tangible purpose.

I hope they leave the achievement points we’ve gotten for the dailies up to this point.

That’s repeatable, but not really something you can exploit (at best, you can still only do your one daily a day).

Minion of Vey.4398:

I hope they leave the achievement points we’ve gotten for the dailies up to this point.

That’s repeatable, but not really something you can exploit (at best, you can still only do your one daily a day).

I don’t think you have to worry about that. It is a completely different thing. Points earned through dailies and monthlies were acquired through normal gameplay, unlike the extreme cases of Agent of Entropy.

Colin – got any examples of what the new variable dailies might be? Is there going to be much of a time gap between the variable versions and the subsetting (eg 4/6)? Feels like you’re going to push players into daily achievements in parts of the game they don’t necessarily like if there’s much of a time gap between the two.

It was refreshing and I think worthwhile of rock-star status that such an important question was answered so quickly and by the person best able to answer.