Guild Wars 2

Forum bug made thread invisible again – and this is one that needs to be kept alive. All guilds need the ability to play together for missions week one.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Hey folks,

Wanted to give you a quick heads up on a handful of notes relevant to Heart of Thorns launch in a few days:

Fractal Dungeon Leaderboards

Back when we announced all the updates to Fractals for Heart of Thorns – the announce blog also discussed more information coming before HoT about leaderboards for Fractals. Our team of folks working on Fractal dungeons kept iterating on this concept and ultimately we have decided to make it something more involved (re: exciting) than our original plans which will extend our development a bit more. This also means you’ll be able to earn the new fractal backpack precursor, but a few of the components for the new legendary will come with this expanded future fractals feature.

As always, we’ll discuss features once they’re far enough along to share development details on; our Fractal Dungeon team will be back with more updates about this and other plans for Fractal Dungeons in the future: when it’s ready™.

This has been pushed back since the “Fractured” Update. Is that the “original” implementation you are talking about, Colin? As a concession, could we at least have rewards for dungeons put back in to compensate for the lack of missing launch features? I am fairly disappointed dungeons have been pushed off to the side, but their abandonment would have been more palatable had there been a few new Fractals added to the game. I really hope the leaderboards are ready™ sooner rather than later. Those of us who really like dungeons and Fractals have waited a long time for their inclusion.

You are making it sound like Fractals getting leaderboards was “originally happening in HoT.” That simply isn’t the case. It was supposed to happen in this update: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fractured which was 2 years ago this November.

• citation: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fractured#cite_note-1

FX Changes: Much needed. The Effects may be Awesome but they are so flashy that they make it nearly impossible to see where small Mobs are facing and they can make even AOE Attacks from the Mobs invisible. A good Step to a better playability.

Leaderboard and Legend Delay: Unfortunate but well at least you told us why. With the Legend, well to be honest. How many People will be able to craft the Legend Backpack in Week one or two? I just hope, the Delay won’t be too long because I want that Backpack xD

And I’m surprised to see that there is way more Salt in the Reddit Forum than here. Normally its the other Way.

Why do we need different icons to identify a class just because you change 1 trait line/spec? If we get more elite specs at a point in the future, that will be even more icons. All this, for what is essentially 1/3rd of your build, and may or may not actually be changing the class mechanic.

Wait… people thought that the fractal leaderboards were going to be functional on time?

::laughs::

I think it’s a rule that every MMO has to have that one thing that makes the programmers and devs weep bitter tears. In CoH it was the Oil Slick Arrow for the longest time. In GW2, it appears to be the fractal leaderboards.

Anyway, thanks for getting this info out to us so early this morning, Mr Johanson. I would like to ask a small favor, though. There will be several new options coming Friday (camera, controls, guild chat, ect). Can you have someone type up a “How do I use this?” for all the new stuff, and have it up before HoT goes live? It will save us a lot of time, both by us reading it, and by us being able to simply link people to it when they ask those questions in-game before reading the boards.

Blaeys.3102:

Juba.8406:

come on guys its just for week 1 cut the qq already, personally i would set my guild missions to be all in WvW, no need to go PvE anymore.

Then this doesnt really impact your ability to play with the people you want to play with.

That isnt true of any guild that enjoys getting together for PVE missions or that has members across servers and actually wants to play with them for missions.

This is a big deal to some of us that lead PVX or PVE guilds in the game. It is a bad precedent to set and hinders our enjoyment – as well as our ability to open our guild hall in a timely manner.

Calling something qq doesnt mean it isnt a legitimate concern. I lead a large guild of very active players. We have a lot of fun together. I see it as my responsibility to speak up and make the argument when something hurts our ability to enjoy the game as a group.

Bottom line – we will not be able to do missions together in a group the first week of Heart of Thorns – and will possibly have to wait longer than should be necessary to open our guild hall.

We play the game to play together. I know we are not the only guild in that situation. This seems like a little thing to guilds that it doesn’t impact, but it most definitely is not little for many of us.

So what ? its just ONE week then you could do what you want.

just be in the shoes of a PvP or WvW only guild for once who miss doing guild missions altogether in the past 2 years and here you are upset over a week.

Full patchnotes plz

ColinJohanson.2394:

MatHack.4316:

Is it possible that you reroll this until you have a PvE, PvP & WvW mission (from what I understood there were three slots initially) considering we have no choice but to have a mix the first week. With only PvP & WvW missions I sorta feel like PvE guilds are getting the short end of the stick.

That was my question when I heard this too! Sadly no, the concept of re-rolling these while seemingly a simple idea – is apparently a mess code wise and would take a really long time to sort out. On the good news side – guild missions reset 3 days after the launch of HoT, so at most you’re waiting 3 days if you’re not interested in doing the launch day missions. Just make sure to set your guilds preferences in those first 3 days!

MatHack.4316:

Is it safe to do the current (PvE) guild missions before the launch, considering you have PvP & WvW rolled only atm? Will doing guild missions before the launch lock the ones that are available after the release?

It’s totally safe to do your guild missions before launch yes. The new guild mission system will activate on launch and offer a brand new set of missions that are not impacted by the ones you had before.

This is a big deal, Colin – because it impacts our ability to open guild halls – and is something that should have been thought of before today. PvP, by definition is 5 people. WvW, by definition, is only people on your server (and EOTM is only people with your color map that week). My guild (and many others) are bigger than those two scenarios – so the decision to limit guild missions to WvW and PVP effectively forces people out of guild missions with the group. That seems counter to the design of GW2.

If you cannot reroll this (and I think you should, even if it is a huge issue to do so), then you need to remove the favor cost from opening guild halls. It still doesnt fix the problem of multiserver guilds and guild missions, but it would address one issue.

My guild was among the first to open guild missions. For the past two plus years, we have done guild missions together every week (we haven’t missed a single one) – and had a lot of fun doing so, even as the they have grown repetitive. This will be the first time in that two years that we will not all be able to do missions together. I loath the idea of telling my guildees that tonight.

This is a bad precedent to set. I know the pvp and wvw missions are “new,” but that is no reason to exclude pve, especially when we need missions to open the guild hall.

Why was it not set to PVE only for week 1? Surely that would have made sense – stick with the status quo, and allow people to change it as they see fit.

I love you Colin I just want you to see this

Was/am looking forward to the expansion of the guild missions to include also the other game modes, in particular WvW. Though I must admit I find it quite an interesting choice that when moving from a PvE orentied activity (which guild missions currently are) to a multi-mode oriented activity (but with choice to continue to focus on a single game mode) it is first forced upon all to “experience” the multi-mode before being able to switch back to the PvE mode. Sure I can understand you want people to experience this new and great opportunity, but when looking at the starting point, wouldn’t it have been more logical to set it standard on the PvE-mode (“as is”) and leaving it up to the guilds if they want to move away from this single mode setting?

Oh well, guess that means we will simply have to see now how to shape this on our guild mission evening.

Are there WvW guild missions that can possibly be completed in Edge of the mists at all?

eh 3 days for guild mission reset isn’t so bad, especially since the 1st day or two you likely won’t get to play much (lag/bugs/server issues)

Bad decision, really. How can I as a member of a multi server guild possibly do WvW guild missions with my guild. You should have had a PvE option the first week, not a WvW option.

ColinJohanson.2394:

hoewhoew.4619:

How will the rewards for guild missions work, for let’s say PvP and WvW missions? As to my understanding a PvP team excists of 5 players and quite a lot of guilds have members from different servers.

Can people from multiple servers contribute to one WvW mission and will they all get a reward, even if it gets completed on one server first? And will all players gain rewards for the PvP missions, even if they are spread out over multiple teams?

Correct yes – multiple teams can contribute simultaneously to one mission for PvP – a guild team requires 3 or more players from the team be actively playing to use the team name, and a guild can have multiple teams playing simultaneously.

For WvW multiple groups of players can contribute simultaneously for WvW as well yes – the requirement is three or more players from the guild must be there participating at an event for it to count towards the mission.

That’s great for the guild favor part of the rewards, but what about personal rewards?

Do PvP/WvW missions give commendations? If so, how do you make sure all guild members that want to get their commendations for the week are able to get them? Especially since a guild of lots of people can’t all be on the same pvp team. How does that work? And what happens if you have a multi-server guild….do the ones not on the main server of the guild just get left out?

What if you team up with guildmates to do the missions and are in the map for the mission but you’re on an opposing server? Example: Yak’s Bend mostly guild doing a take a camp mission…one party member also in the guild is on BG/JQ but the rest of the party takes a camp….do they get personal credit eventhough they’re on another server?

tl;dr: If there are commendations and PERSONAL rewards for the PvP/WvW missions, how do you ensure that everyone that wants credit can get credit?

I hate to belabor this, but I’m already getting concerned posts on my guild’s forums about this. This will have a negative impact on a large number of players who enjoy playing together for missions.

If it is truly impossible to reroll, then they need to do one of the following:

1. Eliminate the favor cost associated with opening guild halls.
-
2. Make sure we can trade in enough influence for favor on day one to give us access to the guild hall expedition charter – without having to do any missions.

Neither of these address the core issue, but they would at least let guilds do all of the steps to unlock their guild hall TOGETHER.

On a systemic perspective – long term, random needs to mean one PVE, one PVP and one WvW – with the option to have it all set to a single one. That way you dont punish any guild for playing the game they actually enjoy – including both specialized and diverse guilds like mine.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Bad decision, really. How can I as a member of a multi server guild possibly do WvW guild missions with my guild. You should have had a PvE option the first week, not a WvW option.

How can a member of a multi-server guild possibly do WvW missions with their guild?

It’s WvW so of course you can’t do it with anyone not on your server silly. Also, Colin answered your question above. Multiple teams can contribute to WvW missions. I’m guessing many of the WvW missions will be to kill X amount of players or take X amount of camps for example.

DBZVelena.5186:

Are there WvW guild missions that can possibly be completed in Edge of the mists at all?

If I remember correctly that is a no. They answered that question on a live stream not too long ago.

One point of clarification: can the mission preference be set from the Guild Initiative or do you have to have a hall first?

This could have an impact on when we decide to do a hall capture. Though I guess you need favor first in order to do that…

Bandit.8279:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Bad decision, really. How can I as a member of a multi server guild possibly do WvW guild missions with my guild. You should have had a PvE option the first week, not a WvW option.

How can a member of a multi-server guild possibly do WvW missions with their guild?

It’s WvW so of course you can’t do it with anyone not on your server silly. Also, Colin answered your question above. Multiple teams can contribute to WvW missions. I’m guessing many of the WvW missions will be to kill X amount of players or take X amount of camps for example.

You need to look up the concept of rhetorical question. Obviously I can’t do it with them on a different server.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Correct yes – multiple teams can contribute simultaneously to one mission for PvP – a guild team requires 3 or more players from the team be actively playing to use the team name, and a guild can have multiple teams playing simultaneously.

For WvW multiple groups of players can contribute simultaneously for WvW as well yes – the requirement is three or more players from the guild must be there participating at an event for it to count towards the mission.

Will the missions still accept contributions after the threshold for success has been met? For example, in a Rush, as long as you finish within the 30 minutes, you get commendations, even if the guild itself has already succeeded. If so, how long do people have, once the mission has been activated, to contribute for commendations?

Guys, it’s for 3 DAYS, and you won’t miss a week because you can do it before HoT drops!

Quit the needless QQ, set your preference to PvE when HoT comes out and enjoy.

As for the weapon effects, I’m with many others that would like an option to disable other users effects on the target in PvE because having a lot of users attack it makes the telegraphing of attacks useless. Speaking as a squishy melee thief that is!

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Bandit.8279:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Bad decision, really. How can I as a member of a multi server guild possibly do WvW guild missions with my guild. You should have had a PvE option the first week, not a WvW option.

How can a member of a multi-server guild possibly do WvW missions with their guild?

It’s WvW so of course you can’t do it with anyone not on your server silly. Also, Colin answered your question above. Multiple teams can contribute to WvW missions. I’m guessing many of the WvW missions will be to kill X amount of players or take X amount of camps for example.

You need to look up the concept of rhetorical question. Obviously I can’t do it with them on a different server.

Not with them, no, but per Colin’s post above you can field teams on each server that will contribute to the goal. So I guess if you have at least three guildies on another server they can join in and voice chat can knit it together into a group experience?

ColinJohanson.2394:

DBZVelena.5186:

Are there WvW guild missions that can possibly be completed in Edge of the mists at all?

Many of the WvW missions can be completed in EoTM yes.

This still doesn’t fix the underlying problem. Even in EoTM, people have to be on the same color teams to play together.

Colin, do you think you guys can add the option for guilds to only run pve+pvp, pve+wvw, or pvp+wvw missions instead of just having the options for one type or all three? I think a 5% favor bonus would be fine.

My guild focuses on pve and spvp, but we are cross server so we have the problem where we either only do pve or we do the mix, but not everyone can join us for wvw.

Excellent, thanks Colin.

The FX changes are EPIC for the PvP scene, and the Engie Icon change

Arcadio.6875:

Colin, do you think you guys can add the option for guilds to only run pve+pvp, pve+wvw, or pvp+wvw missions instead of having just having the options for one type or all three? I think only having a 5% favor bonus would be fine.

My guild focuses on pve and spvp, but we are cross server so we have the problem where we either do only pve or we do the mix, but not everyone can join us for wvw.

ColinJohanson.2394:

You can however have people in different worlds running missions simultaneously for the guild that all contribute. They simply only need to have 3 guild members participating in the specific event for it to count towards the mission – regardless of which world.

He answered it

That doesn’t answer my question…

ColinJohanson.2394:

You can however have people in different worlds running missions simultaneously for the guild that all contribute. They simply only need to have 3 guild members participating in the specific event for it to count towards the mission – regardless of which world.

As leader of a rather small, cross-server guild: this is great news!

ColinJohanson.2394:

Combat Visibility

One change you’ll notice when the expansion goes live – a number of FX for skills have changed. We’ve tried to cut back some of the visual noise of some of the “noisiest” skills to make it easier to see what’s going on in combat with multiple players/mobs on screen. We’ve also made some skill FX end much faster to align with the length their actual combat effect happens in the world – previously some FX lingered much longer than the actual outcome of the skills combat interaction would occur. This is also to help make it easier to see what’s going on in combat.

Any chance this can be an option to toggle on or off in the game/graphics settings later. Some of us play more casually and like the extra effects and some play competitively where they need their ‘visual space’. I’m talking a patch down the line not with HoT release (maybe add some more visuals to existing spells when this is done, if it is done).

Anyhow good luck when you press the big button, can’t wait to get in to the heart of Managua.

Arcadio.6875:

That doesn’t answer my question…

I’m going to guess that it’s not going to happen, but people have mentioned where they talked about three slots that always stay on a set game mode. One for PvE, one for SPvP, and one for WvW.

I think your best bet will be to unlock the two of those that you want as soon as you can, and leave the basic slots on random. That way, you’ll always have at least one each of the mission types you want.

darn 3, that kinda figures, but also excepted and fair, hehe

ColinJohanson.2394:

DBZVelena.5186:

Are there WvW guild missions that can possibly be completed in Edge of the mists at all?

Just double checked w/ the team on this – you cannot do these while in EoTM.

You can however have people in different worlds running missions simultaneously for the guild that all contribute. They simply only need to have 3 guild members participating in the specific event for it to count towards the mission – regardless of which world.

The whole point of guild missions is to give guild members something they can do together (side by side) that they enjoy. It is what you have given us for the past 2 plus years.

Guilds with members on multiple servers or members who do not enjoy pvp or wvw will not be able to do so this weekend. This wouldnt be much of an issue (as youve said, its only 3 days), EXCEPT that it will have an impact on how quickly we can open our guild hall and who gets to be involved in that process. That one hurts.

Long term, the only issue I see is that multiserver guilds will be penalized the 10% bonus on guild missions, regardless of size, but I can live with/sell that to my guild. The idea of leaving people out as we work toward our guild hall this weekend is a little more heartbreaking.

Arcadio.6875:

Colin, do you think you guys can add the option for guilds to only run pve+pvp, pve+wvw, or pvp+wvw missions instead of having just having the options for one type or all three? I think only having a 5% favor bonus would be fine.

My guild focuses on pve and spvp, but we are cross server so we have the problem where we either do only pve or we do the mix, but not everyone can join us for wvw.

This. It would be really great if we could set a smaller pool for random picking, because I imagine a lot of guilds now are cross-server, so WvW missions are a bit trickier to complete unlike PvE and PvP tasks.

It seems like some people are missing the toggle between the types of Guild Missions. For the first week we’ll get a mix, but you can just toggle PvP/WvW off if you’re not that kind of Guild..

So, what this means to me is, unless I can get 2 more from my multi server guild to go do WvW with me while the main body of my guild is doing it on their server, that means I can’t contribute. I can only leach off their efforts and benefit from their successes. For all the good I can do for my guild, I might as well stand at the loading waypoint and play the trading post game.

/shrug. Sounds good to me.

@Colin

not specifically on this topic, but have to use the opportunity now that you’re here:

Can we please get information on how the rollout will happen? Will we have to try to download 5-10GB on Friday?
I’m sure many players would love to know about this.

Fryggenbart.3907:

@Colin

not specifically on this topic, but have to use the opportunity now that you’re here:

Can we please get information on how the rollout will happen? Will we have to try to download 5-10GB on Friday?
I’m sure many players would love to know about this.

I guess the “streaming client” will download anything you need to start playing and if you don’t visit HoT zones you will be able to start playing very quickly.

The HoT zones are of course exactly what everyone wants to play, so everyone will try to get into them and has to download them.
I’m hyped to play the new stuff at Friday 9am, not to do a daily Tequatl.

ColinJohanson.2394:

You can however have people in different worlds running missions simultaneously for the guild that all contribute. They simply only need to have 3 guild members participating in the specific event for it to count towards the mission – regardless of which world.

3 people per world or 3 people in total across all worlds?

Fryggenbart.3907:

The HoT zones are of course exactly what everyone wants to play, so everyone will try to get into them and has to download them.
I’m hyped to play the new stuff at Friday 9am, not to do a daily Tequatl.

I’m not sure everyone wants to play in HoT maps immediately; there is, of course, Halloween available at the same time.

Agonistes.9426:

It seems like some people are missing the toggle between the types of Guild Missions. For the first week we’ll get a mix, but you can just toggle PvP/WvW off if you’re not that kind of Guild..

People aren’t missing the toggle. You’re missing the reason that they’re upset.

Many players have made plans to be online this weekend who purchased HoT already. Bowed out of raids and other activities in other games. Said no to family outings that weekend. Asked off of work, possibly taking a hit on hours depending on their availability and this week’s schedule.

All of this leads to more guilds having a higher percentage of players online. And wanting to do things as a group. Guild missions are the perfect activity for guilds to do together and is a step towards guild halls. With the higher prevalence of PvP and WvW missions this weekend, guilds that don’t play those areas or can’t play together in those areas are punished for their guild being cross server or specializing in one area of the game.

Is it the end of the world? No. But I also haven’t seen anyone in this thread treat it as the end of the world. Just rightfully a bit upset that their guild will not be able to do guild missions this weekend as a group.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Hey folks,
The random roll for this week already happened and we’re seeing on our internal servers that week ones missions rolled a mix of PvP and WvW missions for the first three mission slots that guilds have unlocked once you’re able to access the expansion (as you unlock deeper into your guild hall, you’ll be able to unlock more mission slots). We wanted to make sure everyone knew this information ahead of time.

We couldn’t get one of each for the first week? Then let us select going forward? This is the mega-server era of the game. No 3 players in our casual PVE guild are even on the same server! We’ve also spent the last two months grinding non-stop to prepare for next week. [/NonHostile]

TYVM for Combat Visibility!

Colin,

Thanks SO much for providing this information to us ahead of time. It will definitely help with our missions planning. Two quick questions:

ColinJohanson.2394:

On the good news side – guild missions reset 3 days after the launch of HoT, so at most you’re waiting 3 days if you’re not interested in doing the launch day missions. Just make sure to set your guilds preferences in those first 3 days!

1. What is the specific day and time (PST) that the launch missions will reset? 3 days later is not specific enough to plan around.

2. After the launch missions reset 3 days later, what day of the week and time (PST) will guild missions reset on a weekly basis? This will be very helpful for planning. Thanks!

Thanks again and super excited about launch!

ColinJohanson.2394:

You’ll set the preference in the guild mission panel itself – anyone with the appropriate permissions can do this from anywhere in the world.

One other question:

When we set our preference in the mission panel, will it be multiple choice or mutually exclusive? For example: can we choose just WvW and PvP? Or will it be such that we can only choose one of the three choices?

Thanks!