Improvements, Fixes, and Ideas for GW 2

Improvements, Fixes, and Ideas for GW 2

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Zeyta.3519

Zeyta.3519

Hello Guild Wars 2 Players! I’ve been compiling some ideas about the game that I hope might spark some debate which could ultimately be useful for the Devs.

These are my own ideas and desires for the game. Please add your own ideas as well. We all want this game to be the best it can be. I will also update this with some new ideas as they come up.

Keep in mind that no one is expecting these changes, if considered, to be implemented soon. They are just ideas that may come into play over time as the game develops.

=====

Story:

- All Story Missions in the GW 2 base game need to be checked for bugs. I’m occasionally finding NPC’s stuck after spending 5-10 min on a mission and have to restart.

- Heart Of Thorns Story Missions need to have an option to skip the dialogue after it has been viewed once. They also need an option to replay it if you missed something or want to reiterate it.

Map Completion and Map Zones:

- Needs better rewards than 1 transmutation charge, mats, and a small chance for a BL key.

- More incentive and reason to visit zones when working on a legendary. The game revolves around the TP too much forcing a grind for gold instead of going to various zones throughout the world and acquiring the mats needed. Perhaps shortening the amount of mats needed from 250 to 100, make them account bound and harder to drop, and make those mats exclusive to a particular zone.

- Replayable hearts for all zones. I really like how hearts in Ember Bay can be redone each day. There are many hearts around Tyria that are actually pretty fun. Giving them a reason to be completed again would give them use beyond just map completion, such as for currency for the zone or dailies.

- Tie item and skin acquiring to map zones. Silverwastes Carapace and Luminescent armor requires you to be in that zone, collect bandit crest currency, and save to get the piece you want. This should be the model for most of the items in the game. When you want a Krytan themed or crafted item, you go to a Krytan zone, do replayable hearts and events, earn that zone’s particular currency, and spend it at a Krytan vendor that can give the item and skin you want.

Events:

- Dynamic Events all need to be looked at again for bugs. Still running into some that are frozen and I always feel bad for all the new players that waste so much of their time believing if they just wait long enough it will continue and they will get credit.

- Each event should give bags or containers of some sort, and more of them. Spending 5 minutes or more at an event, especially one with a timer that gives nothing else but a small amount of experience, a few silvers, and karma is a waste of time for the player that has already done that event before.

- World Events should be readjusted to be less predictable and sleep inducing. It’s literally become a key 1 and 2 smash rinse and repeat. The revised Shatterer is a great example of revamping a world event. Lots more going on, lots to do, and lots of possibilities other than 1-2 smash.

Improvements, Fixes, and Ideas for GW 2

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Posted by: Zeyta.3519

Zeyta.3519

Rewards:

- All features of the game need to up their rewards or the quantity of them. The Devs still haven’t balanced the rewards with the time players put into the game. Anet’s own goal of eliminating as much grind as possible compared to other games, has not been fulfilled or realized. Players that have a lot of time to put into the game should be able to get the most out of it. They should be rich. Those who do not have as much time, should be receiving a fulfilling amount of rewards for their time. Enough to be satisfied with, but not enough to upset those who dedicate a lot more time.

I think we have reached a point in this game’s development, as well as with all modern games in general, where we can reward big without players losing interest. Because right now, more interest is lost with grinding than it is rewarded with loot.

- World events need to drop better loot from chests or give more small loot bags from minions. Other than the experience which becomes repetitive after doing them so many times, there isn’t much incentive to do world bosses in terms of rewards.

- Transmutation Charges need to be removed. Like, yesterday. Not only are these an incredibly out of date way of changing the aesthetic of your character, but they are a completely redundant one. Skins should be able to be applied unlimited with a reasonable gold cost at the most. For example, changing an exotic skin chestpiece could cost 50 silver while a weapon is 1 gold.

*Why are we spending so much time doing what we don’t enjoy to get something we want? Why not make the features built around having fun to achieve what we want? Isn’t that what games are for? We shouldn’t assume every player plays WVW or PVP or enjoys the repetitive grind.

Builds:

- More OP build opportunities – or all skills and traits need to be on the same playing level. We shouldn’t have a handful of OP skills only to realize they will only be OP for a few months and then nerfed to disappoint players.

Make every skill and trait equally effective and let the creativity of the players decide how to use them. Players who love the Reaper’s GS skills should not have to find their new favorite weapon outclassed if they decide to play PVP because it attacks too slow.

Let players exploit other player’s weaknesses, instead of players finding flaws and unbalanced mechanics in the skills and traits available.

Convenience:

- Build Switch (If we could have a small drop down menu in our build menu where we could set and select customized builds, it would make switching our different builds per character smoother and faster. Traits and Skills could be set to for each build, and a player could select “Build 1” in the drop down menu instantly adjusting their skills and traits to be a PVP build, a healer build, a tanking build, a condition build, ect.)

- Daily sign-in and Achievement Rewards need more quality and variety to create more incentive. Other games change up their daily log-ins making each day’s reward something special. Getting one more tome of knowledge each week is underwhelming compared to getting a mystic clover or a small sack of gold or gems.

Daily Achievement rewards also need something more useful than a small amount of karma and some cheap mats.

- Mail (composing and deleting mail should have an “Are You Sure?” confirmation dialogue box to prevent common mail mistakes like sending gold to the wrong player or deleting an important message)

PVP and WVW Modes:

- More PVP Maps (I’m sure there is a reason for removing the variety of PVP maps, but when all you have are the same 4-5 maps with players often choosing the same map in queues, it becomes very monotonous and adds to the repetition. There should always be more choices. If GW 1 can have 10+ guild halls to choose from, GW 2 can afford another 5 or so maps to PVP on. Especially if PVP is a major feature.)

- Experience toward the reward track for the Gift of Battle needs to be shortened or there should be more opportunities to gain experience in WVW for those who don’t play it regularly. To get the most experience in a timely manner, you need to be a part of a guild, organized party, or zerg. Yet those who are new to it or are in a world with less population are going to have to do a lot of redundant, non-fun work to complete the gift needed for their legendary. And this is specifically for those who do not enjoy WVW, yet realize it’s a requirement to get their legendary. The only other option is to solo which most would do, yet this takes a lot of that player’s time and patience that could be spent on other parts of the legendary or another activity they enjoy.

(edited by Zeyta.3519)

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Posted by: Zeyta.3519

Zeyta.3519

Items:

- Ability to Dye weapons including Legendary Weapons.

- Useless items like upgrades and prefix equipment that are no longer supported should be removed altogether or completed.

Money/Gold Making:

- The game revolves around the TP and the TP is controlled by the rich players. While the community has managed with this for awhile, we still have a grind-focused way of making an adequate amount of money in a reasonable amount of time.

We should not be farming one area like AB or SW just to make the most profit possible. Like everything else in the game, there should be a variety of potent ways to make money, and it should be tied to our achieved skill, not how many chests we can manage to open in a limited time or how long we can spend running around a desert.

Endgame:

- Endgame in my opinion, is the biggest flaw in every MMORPG I’ve played and most games in general.

We need to create an endgame that doesn’t drain excitement with grinding, keeps a player coming back by challenging their own personal skill level, and directing it towards rewards that are both of variety and significance.

Diablo III has the closest type of endgame to what I would imagine as the perfect endgame. They have a system where you can almost infinitely raise the level of your character, rewards, and challenges. Their bounties encourage you to visit all map zones, and their rewards continue to grow. Yet they still have the issue of repetition and grind.

A perfect endgame system, imagined in the game as it is now, would be the Fractals Of The Mists having an unlimited range of levels, difficulty, rewards, and a level progression similar to the mastery track level that you can raise infinitely.

The FOTM would also be designed for solo combat, to allow any player to utilize it as an endgame.

The high rewards would be more than just ascended items, but rare skins and a repeating experience track would give mats needed for your legendary.

(edited by Zeyta.3519)

Improvements, Fixes, and Ideas for GW 2

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Posted by: Zeyta.3519

Zeyta.3519

Gem Store and Wardrobe:

Wardrobe and gem store items need to be available more often, especially if they are listed in the wardrobe and players are using it to plan out the design for their character. An option to view available and unavailable items should also be present somewhere.

Current Minor Fixes:

- In AB, during the Tarir event, targeting of the Exalted Bomb should be improved. Trying to target it in the mess of things is very inefficient and is one of the causes for the south side being the last to complete during the meta.

- PVP, disallow any other skills or traits to be used while finishing an opponent, like cloaking or blocking. Whenever finishing, the downed opponent should always at least have a chance to defend themselves.

Special Additions:

- Legendary Essence (The only thing more interesting to work for than legendary items, would be a new aesthetic and item slot that could be unlocked, called “Legendary Essence”.

Similar to the surrounding bats or snowfall effect you can get in your shoulder slot, the Legendary Essence would cover the entire body of your character, like an aura, and could further extend the style of your characters, as well as show off a high-level achievement.

The effect would either replace or be another layer over any legendary item effect you currently have. Seeing the cluster of effects many players already have on their character, I can see a more refined effect working well. Having many options and themes for the Legendary Essences, like we have for the gliders, will make working for these effects a new addition to our endgame and create a new level of customization.

- Smaller, Individual Halls like home instances each player can customize. This would not only open a new type of endgame for solo players and all players, but would create a wide incentive to buy and sell decor, upgrades, styles, and other elements to your hall or home instance for customization. Players could design their home/hall and invite their friends, parties, and guildies into it to hang out and use what the owner has placed inside.

We already have the ability to add nodes and invite players in, but why not give them a reason to stay longer and get more from visiting a player’s home?

===

This is it for now. Remember these are my personal ideas. There are a lot of factors to take in account what implementing any of them would mean, but the ideas should be out there.

(edited by Zeyta.3519)

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Posted by: zealex.9410

zealex.9410

oh wow i didnt read it all but i feel sonice ppl care so much to go through all this trouble nice job m8

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Posted by: Zeyta.3519

Zeyta.3519

oh wow i didnt read it all but i feel sonice ppl care so much to go through all this trouble nice job m8

Lol it is pretty long :P

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Posted by: Inculpatus cedo.9234

Inculpatus cedo.9234

Some interesting ideas, though some would necessitate a complete rework of the game. This would mean either no new content for a long time, or perhaps going the route of Guild Wars to Guild Wars 2, which was 5 years with no new content.

Still, who knows what the Devs have in mind for the future? They could be working on some amazing things to release. =)

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

I could answer a lot of these. While some are good ideas, others are unrealistic or wouldn’t improve the game from my point of view.

I almost stopped reading after the test every instance comment in the first place, because instances have been tested. I don’t know if this is your first MMO or not, but they all have bugs. New code, different people coding over time, make it almost impossible to fix all bugs, even though some bugs do get fixed. If every instance was tested and perfect for ever, content would take three, four, five times longer to come out. It’s not realistic to think all bugs in story will be gone, particularly when you consider that some bugs, maybe even most, aren’t easily repeatable. And some things people call bugs aren’t bugs, but a lack of understanding.

I’ll just pick a few other things that I don’t agree with.

I don’t want to have to go through a conformation box every time I send or delete a mail. It would annoy me.

Daily rewards are fine, because if you do three of them, you get two gold. That’s a lot more than we used to get. It’s easy money. Individual dailies otherwise are usually too easy to increase rewards.

Log in rewards are fine. While I agree tomes of knowledge aren’t anything exciting to log in for, you’re getting them free. And you have to log in to get them to get to mystic clovers and laurels, so working as intended. The idea to long in rewards aren’t supposed to make you rich. They’re supposed to get you to log in to compensate, especially for people who don’t have a lot of time. I guess you can see how a level up tome might be useful for someone who doesn’t have time to level a new character, but would still like to play.

What I get from a lot of this is this is my idea for the perfect game, which you’ve said, but it’s really just a log list of stuff you want, without thinking of the ramifications to the game as a whole.

On the other hand, everyone wants a build save feature. That was a solid suggestion. It’s also a suggestion that’s been made time and time ago, for almost four years. Anet knows about it and has talked about it. And they are working on one. It’s just not their first priority.

Finally your comment on end games seems to lack, in my opinion, understanding of the genre. I don’t play Diablo III and I wouldn’t like Diablo III end game. It wouldn’t keep me playing. No MMO can possibly create enough quality content to keep people playing. Even WoW, the game with the most players that charges a monthly sub can’t make enough content to keep everyone playing. That’s why grind exists in MMOs. To keep people playing. Other people buy a new WoW expansion play for a period of months and leave until the next expansion. It’s business as usual.

In in ideal world, you’d be right in asking for some of this stuff, but at the end of the day gaming companies have time budgets, money budgets and other things that make much of this unrealistic.

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Posted by: Zeyta.3519

Zeyta.3519

I could answer a lot of these. While some are good ideas, others are unrealistic or wouldn’t improve the game from my point of view.

I almost stopped reading after the test every instance comment in the first place, because instances have been tested. I don’t know if this is your first MMO or not, but they all have bugs. New code, different people coding over time, make it almost impossible to fix all bugs, even though some bugs do get fixed. If every instance was tested and perfect for ever, content would take three, four, five times longer to come out. It’s not realistic to think all bugs in story will be gone, particularly when you consider that some bugs, maybe even most, aren’t easily repeatable. And some things people call bugs aren’t bugs, but a lack of understanding.

I’ll just pick a few other things that I don’t agree with.

I don’t want to have to go through a conformation box every time I send or delete a mail. It would annoy me.

Daily rewards are fine, because if you do three of them, you get two gold. That’s a lot more than we used to get. It’s easy money. Individual dailies otherwise are usually too easy to increase rewards.

Log in rewards are fine. While I agree tomes of knowledge aren’t anything exciting to log in for, you’re getting them free. And you have to log in to get them to get to mystic clovers and laurels, so working as intended. The idea to long in rewards aren’t supposed to make you rich. They’re supposed to get you to log in to compensate, especially for people who don’t have a lot of time. I guess you can see how a level up tome might be useful for someone who doesn’t have time to level a new character, but would still like to play.

What I get from a lot of this is this is my idea for the perfect game, which you’ve said, but it’s really just a log list of stuff you want, without thinking of the ramifications to the game as a whole.

On the other hand, everyone wants a build save feature. That was a solid suggestion. It’s also a suggestion that’s been made time and time ago, for almost four years. Anet knows about it and has talked about it. And they are working on one. It’s just not their first priority.

Finally your comment on end games seems to lack, in my opinion, understanding of the genre. I don’t play Diablo III and I wouldn’t like Diablo III end game. It wouldn’t keep me playing. No MMO can possibly create enough quality content to keep people playing. Even WoW, the game with the most players that charges a monthly sub can’t make enough content to keep everyone playing. That’s why grind exists in MMOs. To keep people playing. Other people buy a new WoW expansion play for a period of months and leave until the next expansion. It’s business as usual.

In in ideal world, you’d be right in asking for some of this stuff, but at the end of the day gaming companies have time budgets, money budgets and other things that make much of this unrealistic.

Just like some parts of my posts, your post is also heavily based on opinion and personal desires. Not of what is necessary or possible.

It’s also based on a lot of laziness, and a lack of imagination and intelligence for the game to be the best it can be. MMO’s will continue to have the same problems and fail to grow for exactly this kind of mindset from players that aren’t capable of leaving their outdated ways, that will accept whatever is put in front of them, and can’t be bothered to imagine the modern form of the MMORPG.

Your post also lost the majority of its credibility with this:

That’s why grind exists in MMOs. To keep people playing.

You made a huge leap of assumption about my endgame, claiming its somehow about continually creating content when in fact the point was to eliminate or reduce that.

As far as your excuse for gaming companies, that is also the point, that their priority and focus is directed in the wrong way. Which is why it needs to be improved.

If this is what you want your MMORPG to continue to be, then enjoy it. But do not pretend archaic ideas and a lack of vision is actually a benefit to the game or its future.

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

I could answer a lot of these. While some are good ideas, others are unrealistic or wouldn’t improve the game from my point of view.

snip

I’ll just pick a few other things that I don’t agree with.

I don’t want to have to go through a conformation box every time I send or delete a mail. It would annoy me.

Daily rewards are fine, because if you do three of them, you get two gold. That’s a lot more than we used to get. It’s easy money. Individual dailies otherwise are usually too easy to increase rewards.

Log in rewards are fine. While I agree tomes of knowledge aren’t anything exciting to log in for, you’re getting them free. And you have to log in to get them to get to mystic clovers and laurels, so working as intended. The idea to long in rewards aren’t supposed to make you rich. They’re supposed to get you to log in to compensate, especially for people who don’t have a lot of time. I guess you can see how a level up tome might be useful for someone who doesn’t have time to level a new character, but would still like to play.

What I get from a lot of this is this is my idea for the perfect game, which you’ve said, but it’s really just a log list of stuff you want, without thinking of the ramifications to the game as a whole.

On the other hand, everyone wants a build save feature. That was a solid suggestion. It’s also a suggestion that’s been made time and time ago, for almost four years. Anet knows about it and has talked about it. And they are working on one. It’s just not their first priority.

Finally your comment on end games seems to lack, in my opinion, understanding of the genre. I don’t play Diablo III and I wouldn’t like Diablo III end game. It wouldn’t keep me playing. No MMO can possibly create enough quality content to keep people playing. Even WoW, the game with the most players that charges a monthly sub can’t make enough content to keep everyone playing. That’s why grind exists in MMOs. To keep people playing. Other people buy a new WoW expansion play for a period of months and leave until the next expansion. It’s business as usual.

In in ideal world, you’d be right in asking for some of this stuff, but at the end of the day gaming companies have time budgets, money budgets and other things that make much of this unrealistic.

Just like some parts of my posts, your post is also heavily based on opinion and personal desires. Not of what is necessary or possible.

It’s also based on a lot of laziness, and a lack of imagination and intelligence for the game to be the best it can be. MMO’s will continue to have the same problems and fail to grow for exactly this kind of mindset from players that aren’t capable of leaving their outdated ways, that will accept whatever is put in front of them, and can’t be bothered to imagine the modern form of the MMORPG.

Your post also lost the majority of its credibility with this:

That’s why grind exists in MMOs. To keep people playing.

You made a huge leap of assumption about my endgame, claiming its somehow about continually creating content when in fact the point was to eliminate or reduce that.

As far as your excuse for gaming companies, that is also the point, that their priority and focus is directed in the wrong way. Which is why it needs to be improved.

If this is what you want your MMORPG to continue to be, then enjoy it. But do not pretend archaic ideas and a lack of vision is actually a benefit to the game or its future.

Actually I believe you’re incorrect in your assessment.

That is to say, you believe it’s possible to completely troubleshoot an MMO and I say it’s not. Not even a little. Not even a bit.

Companies like Microsoft have buggy programs with much larger budgets than your typical MMO. The games don’t run on huge budgets and making new content is always going to be more important than fixing bugs. Unless a bug is game breaking or breaks progress it’s not likely to be a priority. Because there are a lot of bugs.

You see this as an excuse. I’m going to guess you don’t work in the software development sector.

Why do all MMORPGs have bugs? Is it because every single company is lazy? Do you think that’s reasonable?

I think it’s more reasonable to believe what you’re asking for isn’t possible within the time and budget of most MMOs.

We know stories are tested, because we know there’s a test crew. We’ve hard about it. We’ve heard from people in QA in the past. Stuff is tested.

Not every bug shows up in testing and some bugs don’t even show up until patches go live.

Talk to some software engineers if you don’t believe what I’m saying.

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Posted by: Zeyta.3519

Zeyta.3519

Actually I believe you’re incorrect in your assessment.

That is to say, you believe it’s possible to completely troubleshoot an MMO and I say it’s not. Not even a little. Not even a bit.

Companies like Microsoft have buggy programs with much larger budgets than your typical MMO. The games don’t run on huge budgets and making new content is always going to be more important than fixing bugs. Unless a bug is game breaking or breaks progress it’s not likely to be a priority. Because there are a lot of bugs.

You see this as an excuse.

There are more assumptions here and still no credible argument. Stating someone is incorrect, but not proving it, does not make it so. Where did I say, “it’s possible to completely troubleshoot an MMO”?

As usual when posters fail to comprehend, they create their own conclusion of what a post is saying and try to base their argument on that. A misdirection of time and effort. Kind of like the Dev’s current focus, unfortunately.

I clearly stated:

Keep in mind that no one is expecting these changes, if considered, to be implemented soon. They are just ideas that may come into play over time as the game develops.

Which means that there will always be a need for improvements and the areas I’ve listed are where those improvements can take place over time as the game develops.

No one is saying halt production on new content or quickly make endless content to please the masses. I am however saying, that quality of life changes can take place over time, just as they do in almost every other MMORPG still out there. The points I laid out are where those improvements could take place, and they are my own personal suggestions of where they should take place.

Why do all MMORPGs have bugs? Is it because every single company is lazy? Do you think that’s reasonable?

I think it’s more reasonable to believe what you’re asking for isn’t possible within the time and budget of most MMOs.

We know stories are tested, because we know there’s a test crew. We’ve hard about it. We’ve heard from people in QA in the past. Stuff is tested.

Not every bug shows up in testing and some bugs don’t even show up until patches go live.

This is either another failure of comprehension or you are twisting my points to have an argument. The laziness I refer to is the mindset you and others have who think well-enough is ultimately enough for a game whose creator’s and director’s “sole goal and responsibility is to make Guild Wars 2 the very best game that we can for our players.”

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/guild-wars-2-base-game-now-free-dev-promises-no-ag/1100-6430152/

Those who like to constantly mention what isn’t possible are those who are contributing to the failure of the Devs ultimate goal. Stop only looking and stopping at what obstacles are in the way, and start looking at how to overcome them.

Not enough time? Not enough money? Not enough developers? What ways can we approach this, make even more money from it, and progress toward our goal? That’s what discussion is for, and it’s not just limited to the Devs. But doing very little to nothing and pushing out what is currently making Anet a steady profit is not what will progress this game toward their goal or keep it from becoming outdated and replaced one day.

I’m going to guess you don’t work in the software development sector.

Talk to some software engineers if you don’t believe what I’m saying.

Audiences don’t need to talk to or be a filmmaker to tell you when a film is lacking. Drivers don’t need to talk to or be an auto engineer to tell you when their car has obvious mechanical issues. And gamers don’t need to be or talk to software engineers or game developers to tell you when the game they are playing has flaws and errors. Yes, some issues are by opinion. Others are by fact.

Never forget, that all of these products require the most important factor: the public’s use and feedback. (not to mention money) Without it, no product would be adequate and no progress could be made.

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

That’s a great example of a straw man argument you’ve got there. Comparing a film to an MMO. Let me tell you how that goes.

Lucasfilm makes the first Star Wars movie. Then they release it, and it’s done. When they make the second Star Wars movie, and they release it, they don’t have to go and change code in the first Star Wars movie. And when they make the third, they don’t have to go back and change what’s in teh first two.

MMOs are not movies and they can’t be treated like movies, and no amount of saying they should be will make it viable.

I’ve played every instance in this game, most likely multiple times. After the personal story I’ve played every instance in this game many times on many different professions. There aren’t enough bugs in those stories to make it worth going back and testing every story, which is exactly specifically what you’re saying should be done.

Spaghetti code doesn’t exist in movies, but it does exist in programming. As a program moves forward, it gets harder and harder and takes more and more time to go back and unravel what’s come before. You don’t have to believe me. Anyone who’s worked on any major projects will tell you it’s true.

If Anet did go back and test and review every single story instance, they would end up having less people working on new content and new features. I don’t have to prove it because it’s simple logic.

You’re the one who suggested this is what they do. I seriously suggest you talk to people who work in the industry.

I can think of two or three stories they’d have to work on, but going back and checking them all? It’s just a bad idea.

I’m sorry that you feel there’s not enough proof in what I’m saying. But I’ve proven through playing to my satisfaction that those stories don’t need that kind of testing, with the possible exception of Heart and Minds and maybe one or two others.

The fact that they don’t block progress and the fact that you believe companies have budgets for it gives me all the information I need to comment.

You don’t really need proof if the logic is so straight forward.

(edited by Vayne.8563)

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Posted by: Zeyta.3519

Zeyta.3519

That’s a great example of a straw man argument you’ve got there. Comparing a film to an MMO. Let me tell you how that goes.

Lucasfilm makes the first Star Wars movie. Then they release it, and it’s done. When they make the second Star Wars movie, and they release it, they don’t have to go and change code in the first Star Wars movie. And when they make the third, they don’t have to go back and change what’s in teh first two.

MMOs are not movies and they can’t be treated like movies, and no amount of saying they should be will make it viable.

I don’t think you are understanding the point being addressed there. The purpose of using the viewer/filmmaker — driver/auto engineer — gamer/game developer analogy is to point out that the product receiver does not need to be the product creator to understand and point out when there is a legitimate problem with the product.

I’ve played every instance in this game, most likely multiple times. After the personal story I’ve played every instance in this game many times on many different professions. There aren’t enough bugs in those stories to make it worth going back and testing every story, which is exactly specifically what you’re saying should be done.

Spaghetti code doesn’t exist in movies, but it does exist in programming. As a program moves forward, it gets harder and harder and takes more and more time to go back and unravel what’s come before. You don’t have to believe me. Anyone who’s worked on any major projects will tell you it’s true.

If Anet did go back and test and review every single story instance, they would end up having less people working on new content and new features. I don’t have to prove it because it’s simple logic.

You’re the one who suggested this is what they do. I seriously suggest you talk to people who work in the industry.

I can think of two or three stories they’d have to work on, but going back and checking them all? It’s just a bad idea.

I’m sorry that you feel there’s not enough proof in what I’m saying. But I’ve proven through playing to my satisfaction that those stories don’t need that kind of testing, with the possible exception of Heart and Minds and maybe one or two others.

The fact that they don’t block progress and the fact that you believe companies have budgets for it gives me all the information I need to comment.

You don’t really need proof if the logic is so straight forward.

You are misunderstanding and twisting some of what I said there, but I agree I was too broad on the idea of going through every story instance and dynamic event. Though, I do believe some level of that process should be done over time.

There are bugs and glitches in some of the story instances and there are the same types of errors on some of the events. If the instance or event cannot be completed because of such bugs, then it is a problem and needs to be fixed. Some of these bugs could be handled quite quickly if they were tended to.

The moa event in Queensdale near the bandit caves used to freeze progress. It was then fixed in a quality of life update. There are several more that could also be fixed if they were just tended to like the moa event.

At the very least the obvious bugs should be cleared up. Such as the Sparkfly Fen events around Thundertroll Swamp and the events around Degun Shun in Blazeridge Steppes that continue to freeze.

What I have done on this thread is list the general issue of story and dynamic event issues in my post. I left it broad, but I’m sure there are more bugs that I am unaware of that could be mentioned, which is where additional feedback from other posters comes in. Those who have experienced such issues could post them here.

So the point I am making, is that they can and probably will fix these things eventually. It’s not impossible, even within their time and budget.

Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read my thread and contributing your knowledge and opinions. Have fun in the game!

(edited by Zeyta.3519)

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

The problem is, the things that they fix can break again after they fix it. They fixed the moa event, but now it still stalls sometimes again. They fixed the Ogre Wars event more than one time, but eventually it breaks again.

There are fixed that get broken by changes and there are new bugs introduced by different changes. If you’d worded your complaint without seeming to imply (and this is backed up by what you said elsewhere) that people who work in the MMO industry are simply lazy, sure, everyone agrees, bugs should be fixed. The problem is, every time you fix one bug two more appear. Nothing is as simple as you make it sound.

I’ve watched the devs at Anet for a long time, and I don’t believe they’re lazy or not trying and I think anyone who suggests thats’ the case is themselves lazy, looking for a way to express their displeasure at something without trying to understand why it is the way it is.

I worked in the computer industry for a long long time and I’ve been on the receiving enough of people who insisted they knew my job better than I did. How repairs could have a faster turnaround time or how things could be more efficient. Yet each time such changes were implemented, they never really made a difference to the bottom line. Repair times generally remained the same, customer satisfaction generally remained the same, because the people suggesting the measures being suggested only see the problems, but don’t really understand the industry…and then they blame the industry.

There is no magic bullet to fix what’s wrong with the way MMOs are generally delivered because if there was, someone would have figured it out by now. All MMOs have bugs and all MMOs suffer the same types of complaints on their forums, because they all are starting from the same place…limited time, limited budget, too much competition and not enough time to do everything they’d really like to do.

Hope you have a happy holiday.

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Posted by: Gwaihir.1745

Gwaihir.1745

That’s why d3 went from a lowly rated mmo to one of the top going into 2016 post RoS.

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Posted by: Zeyta.3519

Zeyta.3519

That’s why d3 went from a lowly rated mmo to one of the top going into 2016 post RoS.

D3 has a lot of fantastic features. Some of the GW 2 Devs came from the Diablo team as well which is probably why both of these games are my favorites!

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Posted by: Zeyta.3519

Zeyta.3519

The problem is, the things that they fix can break again after they fix it. They fixed the moa event, but now it still stalls sometimes again. They fixed the Ogre Wars event more than one time, but eventually it breaks again.

There are fixed that get broken by changes and there are new bugs introduced by different changes. If you’d worded your complaint without seeming to imply (and this is backed up by what you said elsewhere) that people who work in the MMO industry are simply lazy, sure, everyone agrees, bugs should be fixed. The problem is, every time you fix one bug two more appear. Nothing is as simple as you make it sound.

I’ve watched the devs at Anet for a long time, and I don’t believe they’re lazy or not trying and I think anyone who suggests thats’ the case is themselves lazy, looking for a way to express their displeasure at something without trying to understand why it is the way it is.

I worked in the computer industry for a long long time and I’ve been on the receiving enough of people who insisted they knew my job better than I did. How repairs could have a faster turnaround time or how things could be more efficient. Yet each time such changes were implemented, they never really made a difference to the bottom line. Repair times generally remained the same, customer satisfaction generally remained the same, because the people suggesting the measures being suggested only see the problems, but don’t really understand the industry…and then they blame the industry.

There is no magic bullet to fix what’s wrong with the way MMOs are generally delivered because if there was, someone would have figured it out by now. All MMOs have bugs and all MMOs suffer the same types of complaints on their forums, because they all are starting from the same place…limited time, limited budget, too much competition and not enough time to do everything they’d really like to do.

Hope you have a happy holiday.

Okay, Vayne, just stop talking now lol. You still don’t seem to understand what I was saying. I get that you worked in the computer industry and have a grudge and angst against complaints from customers. But that still doesn’t change the fact that there are more and better ways for things to be done than they are now. Just because you can’t see that, doesn’t mean everyone else is wrong and you are right.

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

The problem is, the things that they fix can break again after they fix it. They fixed the moa event, but now it still stalls sometimes again. They fixed the Ogre Wars event more than one time, but eventually it breaks again.

There are fixed that get broken by changes and there are new bugs introduced by different changes. If you’d worded your complaint without seeming to imply (and this is backed up by what you said elsewhere) that people who work in the MMO industry are simply lazy, sure, everyone agrees, bugs should be fixed. The problem is, every time you fix one bug two more appear. Nothing is as simple as you make it sound.

I’ve watched the devs at Anet for a long time, and I don’t believe they’re lazy or not trying and I think anyone who suggests thats’ the case is themselves lazy, looking for a way to express their displeasure at something without trying to understand why it is the way it is.

I worked in the computer industry for a long long time and I’ve been on the receiving enough of people who insisted they knew my job better than I did. How repairs could have a faster turnaround time or how things could be more efficient. Yet each time such changes were implemented, they never really made a difference to the bottom line. Repair times generally remained the same, customer satisfaction generally remained the same, because the people suggesting the measures being suggested only see the problems, but don’t really understand the industry…and then they blame the industry.

There is no magic bullet to fix what’s wrong with the way MMOs are generally delivered because if there was, someone would have figured it out by now. All MMOs have bugs and all MMOs suffer the same types of complaints on their forums, because they all are starting from the same place…limited time, limited budget, too much competition and not enough time to do everything they’d really like to do.

Hope you have a happy holiday.

Okay, Vayne, just stop talking now lol. You still don’t seem to understand what I was saying. I get that you worked in the computer industry and have a grudge and angst against complaints from customers. But that still doesn’t change the fact that there are more and better ways for things to be done than they are now. Just because you can’t see that, doesn’t mean everyone else is wrong and you are right.

This is an exact quote from you:

“- All Story Missions in the GW 2 base game need to be checked for bugs. I’m occasionally finding NPC’s stuck after spending 5-10 min on a mission and have to restart.”

All story missions means all story missions. That’s what you said. So I’m pretty sure I understand what you’re saying.

I can also paste the parts where you use words like lazy if you want, but what’s the point. You’re denying something you actually said.

I’ve brought up my own complaints about the game from time to time, when I feel they they’re reasonable. I don’t think the things you’ve said are reasonable, not all of them certainly.

You can say I don’t understand, but then you’d have to show me how you mean All story missions NEED to be checked for bugs.

How can that sentence mean anything other than that I am saying it means?

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Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

The problem is, the things that they fix can break again after they fix it. They fixed the moa event, but now it still stalls sometimes again. They fixed the Ogre Wars event more than one time, but eventually it breaks again.

There are fixed that get broken by changes and there are new bugs introduced by different changes. If you’d worded your complaint without seeming to imply (and this is backed up by what you said elsewhere) that people who work in the MMO industry are simply lazy, sure, everyone agrees, bugs should be fixed. The problem is, every time you fix one bug two more appear. Nothing is as simple as you make it sound.

I’ve watched the devs at Anet for a long time, and I don’t believe they’re lazy or not trying and I think anyone who suggests thats’ the case is themselves lazy, looking for a way to express their displeasure at something without trying to understand why it is the way it is.

I worked in the computer industry for a long long time and I’ve been on the receiving enough of people who insisted they knew my job better than I did. How repairs could have a faster turnaround time or how things could be more efficient. Yet each time such changes were implemented, they never really made a difference to the bottom line. Repair times generally remained the same, customer satisfaction generally remained the same, because the people suggesting the measures being suggested only see the problems, but don’t really understand the industry…and then they blame the industry.

There is no magic bullet to fix what’s wrong with the way MMOs are generally delivered because if there was, someone would have figured it out by now. All MMOs have bugs and all MMOs suffer the same types of complaints on their forums, because they all are starting from the same place…limited time, limited budget, too much competition and not enough time to do everything they’d really like to do.

Hope you have a happy holiday.

Okay, Vayne, just stop talking now lol. You still don’t seem to understand what I was saying. I get that you worked in the computer industry and have a grudge and angst against complaints from customers. But that still doesn’t change the fact that there are more and better ways for things to be done than they are now. Just because you can’t see that, doesn’t mean everyone else is wrong and you are right.

This is an exact quote from you:

“- All Story Missions in the GW 2 base game need to be checked for bugs. I’m occasionally finding NPC’s stuck after spending 5-10 min on a mission and have to restart.”

All story missions means all story missions. That’s what you said. So I’m pretty sure I understand what you’re saying.

I can also paste the parts where you use words like lazy if you want, but what’s the point. You’re denying something you actually said.

I’ve brought up my own complaints about the game from time to time, when I feel they they’re reasonable. I don’t think the things you’ve said are reasonable, not all of them certainly.

You can say I don’t understand, but then you’d have to show me how you mean All story missions NEED to be checked for bugs.

How can that sentence mean anything other than that I am saying it means?

He already, essentially, retracted that statement.

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Posted by: Zeyta.3519

Zeyta.3519

This is an exact quote from you:

“- All Story Missions in the GW 2 base game need to be checked for bugs. I’m occasionally finding NPC’s stuck after spending 5-10 min on a mission and have to restart.”

All story missions means all story missions. That’s what you said. So I’m pretty sure I understand what you’re saying.

I can also paste the parts where you use words like lazy if you want, but what’s the point. You’re denying something you actually said.

I’ve brought up my own complaints about the game from time to time, when I feel they they’re reasonable. I don’t think the things you’ve said are reasonable, not all of them certainly.

You can say I don’t understand, but then you’d have to show me how you mean All story missions NEED to be checked for bugs.

How can that sentence mean anything other than that I am saying it means?

You keep making assumptions and mis-comprehending everything I say in every post you make. Claiming I think the Devs can completely troubleshoot the entire game. Claiming that I think all the problems of the game can be fixed with a “magic bullet”. Claiming that I think the Devs are lazy. Now you’re saying I’m denying things I said, yet that is another false claim. I didn’t deny anything. I said the Devs need to go through all story instances and events and search for bugs. Then I said I should be more specific on which ones, but that ultimately every noticeable bug should be fixed over time. What I am asking, is not the same as troubleshooting the entire game, fixing everything with a magic-bullet, calling the Devs lazy, or denying what I have already stated.

My laziness comment is about anyone, Dev or player with the MINDSET that if it hasn’t been done before and is too much of this or that, that it’s impossible and can never be done. That is pure laziness and a lack of vision and intelligence. I DON’T think the Devs have that mindset. I think anyone who does have that mindset is lazy, and your previous posts show that mindset. So who was I calling lazy? YOU. And anyone who thinks like that. See what I mean by misunderstanding what I’m saying?

The GW 2 Devs can’t fix every event if they want to prioritize content over quality of life, right? We get this. But the events can never be fixed? So essentially there will always be a broken event in the game in one of the most visited spots? Then take the event out. Or hire a team that focuses on these specific issues if they want to keep the event.

Not enough money to pay more developers? Then maybe you shouldn’t be taking out and preventing items that players want from being bought. Missed money opportunities every day. A game with no subscription should be capitalizing on its in-game store. Many people would like to buy stuff from the gem store. Yet right now it’s so scarce and the items people really want aren’t even available. All of this leads back to bad decisions. In a game that has many good decisions, it seems this is one they need to work on, because it IS possible.

I hope you are able to comprehend what I am saying this time, because I honestly think you are just trolling at this point.

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

And yet even in your later responses you ignore many of the points I’ve made.

You say well Anet can just fix the stuff that’s not working. Of course they can. That’s assuming several things.

1. It’s a reproducable error. Many errors don’t happen all the time and if they only happen rarely they’re much harder to track down. Those types of bug fixes take more time. So how much time should they devote to each bug before moving onto the next tone.

2. Some bugs were fixed and either reappear, or different bugs appear. Anet has fixed bugs before, but again, when you fix one thing, other things break. This is one of the biggest issues in writing a huge program over multiple years. No company has ever really found a way to deal with this. It’s not like there’s one blueprint made by one architect and everyone is working to spec, with a one time design goal in mind. People are working on different things without one giant blueprint and one group programming one thing affects other groups programming different things. No company has been able to make games without bugs. Anet fixes dozens of bugs a month, maybe more. To fix all the bugs or even most of them, they’d have to shut the game down, because if you keep added stuff, you’re also going to be adding more bugs. That’s why bugs get prioritized.

At the end of the day, what you’re asking for, simply isn’t reasonable. You’re entering a room and saying you guys should fix the bugs. Like no one has thought of that. No one at Anet has come up with the idea that bugs should be fixed. Even just listing that makes me question the rest of the list.

Anet knows bugs should be fixed. Anet has fixed many bugs. Anet hasn’t fixed all bugs. No company that makes an MMORPG has fixed all the bugs, or probably even most of the bugs. No one has that kind of budget.

There’s little in your original post that hasn’t been suggest before, or even suggested many times before. But there are people who dislike those suggestions that have also posted in each of those threads.

For example there was a thread about hearts a while back and I’m sure more than half the people posting in that thread disliked hearts. You say you want them repeatable. They weren’t even supposed to be in the game at all.

To ask a company to go back and make all hearts repeatable, hearts that are for the most part carbon copies of each other with no depth, that were introduced in the game strictly to get people to areas where dynamic events spawn, is ludicrous. Going back and reworking stuff isn’t in the cards. Moving forward, sure, make new hearts. Though it’s my opinion even in the new zones, the only reason people complete hearts is the rewards. I do it too. And you know what? I think it’s dull and boring. I don’t enjoy two two or three hearts to buy petrified wood every day. That’s not exciting. It takes five minutes for each heart, so I waste ten minutes a day with absolute busy work, strictly because I want the reward.

Most people I know don’t like hearts. They don’t enjoy hearts. They don’t care about hearts, which were never really intended to be content in the first place and didn’t even exist in the first two betas. But you want Anet to go back and fix this and make them all repeatable.

I hope they don’t do it. I don’t think it’ll make the game better. I don’t think it’ll make the game stronger. And I don’t think the repeatable hearts that are in the game now have made the game more enjoyable…certainly not for me.

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Posted by: Zeyta.3519

Zeyta.3519

And yet even in your later responses you ignore many of the points I’ve made.

What can you expect when the majority of my time replying to you is having to correct your misunderstandings? That doesn’t allow me time to get to the actual argument of our points. That’s what I’ve been trying to get through to you.

*Rest of post too large to fit

I understand where you are coming from in a way, and here is what I think.

It takes two main types of people to make a product. One with a vision, and one with the technical skills to make the vision a reality. I can tell you are the latter type of person who mostly sees the process and limitations, which makes sense. I see the overall product, the vision of it, and its future. Without either type of person, there is no product. But to say that something cannot be done is just unacceptable. That defeats the efforts of both types of people. However, to say it cannot be done the way we are going about it, means that we need to rework how we do things in order to achieve our goal.

Our goal is to "make Guild Wars 2 the very best game that we can for players.”, right?

So to do that, it means more than just keeping up with new content in order to keep up profit. It means finding a way to produce new content, keep the game in good shape, and make as much profit as we can from the game as a whole.

One thing we need to understand right now, is that there are many types of players that like many different things in the game. You don’t like hearts. I do. You think getting something done and moving on is enough and okay. I think reviewing and pin-pointing errors regularly is crucial to a healthy game especially for its future. I also think there is no such thing as a completely finished product, and different areas of the game can constantly use improvement.

No matter how much or how long it takes, the game must improve where it can. That doesn’t mean everyone drop what they are doing and fix errors, it means dedicate a part of your team to it at the expense of less hands pushing out new content. Like I said, pushing new content isn’t enough for the longevity of this game. It is very important, but it’s not the only priority and it won’t last. Some of that focus needs to be devoted to strengthening the game as a whole.

We should never be more intimidated by the process than we are motivated by the goal. Because in the end, those who claim something is impossible will always be proven wrong by the person who does it.

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

Saying it can’t be done is not only acceptable, but it’s the only truth in this thread. No one has managed to do it with an MMO and no one will ever be able to, for reasons I’ve already outlined.

This game launched with a very specific vision and there are some brilliant technical people working for this company as well. Evidence of this is the server system which has remarkably little down time for an MMO. But there’s always going to be an issue of man hours and budget, both in time and money. No MMO is ever going to overcome that.

WoW has plenty of bugs and probably has ten times the income of Guild Wars 2. That’s my point.

And yes of course the game must improve where it can. My argument with you is that I don’t really think you know where it can. That’s my whole argument.

There are other things you mentioned that others have disagreed with over time. One of them is zone wide currencies. There are already a ton of currencies in this game. I mean a lot. Now if you hate Dry Top and you’re forced to go there to get a currency, you’re being forced to play content you don’t like to get something. That’s why the new legendary system for HoT legendaries allows you to farm components in one of many zones. Giving the players choice about where they want to farm, rather than restricting them. Plenty of people have expressed displeasure being forced into specific zones, and every time it happens, someone brings up the whole Anet said we could play as we want. While that’s often taken out of context, the fact is, the game has become in many ways more limiting than it used to be.

But at the end of the day presentation is everything. Your belief that it can be better than it is is just that, your belief. Without working at Anet or any other software gaming company, without knowing the challenges they face, including budget and time constraints, without knowing the specific situation, saying it’s not good enough isn’t really good enough.

For example in the last couple of years, Anet has lost quite a few of their top level employees to Amazon, who have started making games. Amazon’s studio is close to Anet’s and so it’s an easy poach for them. They can certainly afford to pay the money to get people they want.

So Anet is not just trying to make a game with new content and maintain a game, but they’’re also constantly filling gaps, having to train new people to take over new roles and having to adapt on the fly.

In an ideal world, you might well be right, but game programming is anything but an ideal world.

And then you have the fact that no two groups of people ever really agree on what you’re saying. Out of your entire list, the one thing I think most people agree with is the ability to save builds. People have been asking for that almost since launch and I’ve not seen one single person who disagrees that that would be a good addition to the game.

But the rest of the list, much of it has been discussed already and there are cons for every pro.

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Posted by: maddoctor.2738

maddoctor.2738

Map Completion and Map Zones

They added the map rewards system from events, you find the zone that gives what you want, go to that zone and do events, and get the reward you are after. The problem with that system is how one map (Frostgorge) is way too rewarding compared to the others and it’s usually better to farm that map (on week sell the materials, and buy what you want.

If they tune that system better so it’s worth visiting the zones for the materials you want, instead of playing on others to get gold to buy them, then it will be much better and we may see way more players using it.

Map completion can be added to it. Like, every vista, heart, waypoint, point of interest, hero challenge that you finish contributes to the map rewards. This gives a high incentive to take your alts to every zone (and make new alts!) to re-do them for the rewards.

As for map currencies I think we have too many and adding one on each region will cause an overflow. It’s already a mess. What they could do (and is already done to some extend) is to add the specific region rewards to Heart vendors, then make those Hearts repeatable. So you want that krytan greatsword skin? You need to finish HeartA and buy it from the vendor.

Events:

There is a reason events with long escorts and/or timers are being ignored, they aren’t worth the effort. A way of “fixing” this is to split long events in phases, and make each individual phase contribute towards map rewards. So a camp is under attack by risen, now you get a reward once the assault is finished, but with the phase system, you will get “progress” multiple times, if the event lasts 8 minutes, it might reward you 4 times (every 2 minutes) with map reward progress. Together with tweaking the map reward system (see above) this can go a long way in making the entire game more rewarding to play and give incentives to visit the entire world.

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Posted by: maddoctor.2738

maddoctor.2738

Players that have a lot of time to put into the game should be able to get the most out of it. They should be rich.

Usually those with more time put into the game are richer than those with limited time. But it’s also about how you spend that time.

Make every skill and trait equally effective

Although it’s something all players in all games have been asking since the beginning of gaming, you know that’s impossible… there is no game in history that ever managed that.

- More PVP Maps (I’m sure there is a reason for removing the variety of PVP maps, but when all you have are the same 4-5 maps with players often choosing the same map in queues, it becomes very monotonous and adds to the repetition.

They added 2 new maps very recently. Waiting for extra testing and feedback processing to make them available in queues.

- Ability to Dye weapons including Legendary Weapons.

Won’t happen. They add “new” skins that are similar to ones but with different dyes already.

(edited by maddoctor.2738)

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Posted by: Hyper Cutter.9376

Hyper Cutter.9376

As for map currencies I think we have too many and adding one on each region will cause an overflow. It’s already a mess. What they could do (and is already done to some extend) is to add the specific region rewards to Heart vendors, then make those Hearts repeatable. So you want that krytan greatsword skin? You need to finish HeartA and buy it from the vendor.

Honestly, this is already a thing. There’s tons of skins only available from karma vendors (including something like half a dozen weapon sets only available that way, along with multiple armor sets and some miscellaneous weapon skins like the Jotun Greatsword).

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Posted by: Inculpatus cedo.9234

Inculpatus cedo.9234

Pretty sure that’s not who he/she was calling a troll…lol. But, uncalled for, nevertheless.

OT: OP, you say ArenaNet should ‘dedicate a part of the team’ to fixing bugs. That’s what the QA Team is for. Every set of patch notes lists just some of the bugs fixed, and almost every hotfix is bug fixes. I’m guessing someone as knowledgeable as Mike O’Brien knows how many of the Studio Team should be allocated to QA, to content design, to production, etc., etc. to keep the game healthy and viable. Much more than we do, anyway.

If you truly want the Devs to consider your suggestions, you might post them in the QoL Sticky where they are more apt to peruse.

Good luck.

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Posted by: Zeyta.3519

Zeyta.3519

OT: OP, you say ArenaNet should ‘dedicate a part of the team’ to fixing bugs. That’s what the QA Team is for. Every set of patch notes lists just some of the bugs fixed, and almost every hotfix is bug fixes. I’m guessing someone as knowledgeable as Mike O’Brien knows how many of the Studio Team should be allocated to QA, to content design, to production, etc., etc. to keep the game healthy and viable. Much more than we do, anyway.

If you truly want the Devs to consider your suggestions, you might post them in the QoL Sticky where they are more apt to peruse.

Good luck.

That’s right, and that’s why I said they are working on bugs and probably will fix some of these obvious ones over time. I never expected fixes or changes to be made instantly.

But I don’t think the priority of new content is the right excuse for why issues throughout the game can never be fixed.

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Posted by: Zeyta.3519

Zeyta.3519

you know that’s impossible… there is no game in history that ever managed that.

Impossible? No it’s not. Not likely to happen anytime soon? Yes.

Maybe that goal can’t be reached any time soon, but it can certainly be better than it is. The point is to work toward the goal, not have it right away.

Won’t happen. They add “new” skins that are similar to ones but with different dyes already.

What new skins are you talking about? The precursors? And it very well could and should happen.

Improvements, Fixes, and Ideas for GW 2

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Zeyta.3519

Zeyta.3519

If they tune that system better so it’s worth visiting the zones for the materials you want, instead of playing on others to get gold to buy them, then it will be much better and we may see way more players using it.

Map completion can be added to it. Like, every vista, heart, waypoint, point of interest, hero challenge that you finish contributes to the map rewards. This gives a high incentive to take your alts to every zone (and make new alts!) to re-do them for the rewards.

As for map currencies I think we have too many and adding one on each region will cause an overflow. It’s already a mess. What they could do (and is already done to some extend) is to add the specific region rewards to Heart vendors, then make those Hearts repeatable. So you want that krytan greatsword skin? You need to finish HeartA and buy it from the vendor.

I like this idea. I think instead of just adding more and more, we should combine certain aspects like Map Comp and higher rewards per level giving all of these aspects more incentive and worth. The map bonuses currently are too weak IMO and like you said, there are only a few zones that have map bonuses worth the time.

There is a reason events with long escorts and/or timers are being ignored, they aren’t worth the effort. A way of “fixing” this is to split long events in phases, and make each individual phase contribute towards map rewards. So a camp is under attack by risen, now you get a reward once the assault is finished, but with the phase system, you will get “progress” multiple times, if the event lasts 8 minutes, it might reward you 4 times (every 2 minutes) with map reward progress. Together with tweaking the map reward system (see above) this can go a long way in making the entire game more rewarding to play and give incentives to visit the entire world.

This is a good patch, as long as it’s not more work than fixing the actual issue of an event freezing. It would also give more incentive to do the events.

Improvements, Fixes, and Ideas for GW 2

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Zeyta.3519

Zeyta.3519

Saying it can’t be done is not only acceptable, but it’s the only truth in this thread. No one has managed to do it with an MMO and no one will ever be able to, for reasons I’ve already outlined.

This game launched with a very specific vision and there are some brilliant technical people working for this company as well. Evidence of this is the server system which has remarkably little down time for an MMO. But there’s always going to be an issue of man hours and budget, both in time and money. No MMO is ever going to overcome that.

WoW has plenty of bugs and probably has ten times the income of Guild Wars 2. That’s my point.

And yes of course the game must improve where it can. My argument with you is that I don’t really think you know where it can. That’s my whole argument.

There are other things you mentioned that others have disagreed with over time. One of them is zone wide currencies. There are already a ton of currencies in this game. I mean a lot. Now if you hate Dry Top and you’re forced to go there to get a currency, you’re being forced to play content you don’t like to get something. That’s why the new legendary system for HoT legendaries allows you to farm components in one of many zones. Giving the players choice about where they want to farm, rather than restricting them. Plenty of people have expressed displeasure being forced into specific zones, and every time it happens, someone brings up the whole Anet said we could play as we want. While that’s often taken out of context, the fact is, the game has become in many ways more limiting than it used to be.

But at the end of the day presentation is everything. Your belief that it can be better than it is is just that, your belief. Without working at Anet or any other software gaming company, without knowing the challenges they face, including budget and time constraints, without knowing the specific situation, saying it’s not good enough isn’t really good enough.

For example in the last couple of years, Anet has lost quite a few of their top level employees to Amazon, who have started making games. Amazon’s studio is close to Anet’s and so it’s an easy poach for them. They can certainly afford to pay the money to get people they want.

So Anet is not just trying to make a game with new content and maintain a game, but they’’re also constantly filling gaps, having to train new people to take over new roles and having to adapt on the fly.

In an ideal world, you might well be right, but game programming is anything but an ideal world.

And then you have the fact that no two groups of people ever really agree on what you’re saying. Out of your entire list, the one thing I think most people agree with is the ability to save builds. People have been asking for that almost since launch and I’ve not seen one single person who disagrees that that would be a good addition to the game.

But the rest of the list, much of it has been discussed already and there are cons for every pro.

Bad excuse. Weak excuse. Many excuses.

You have much to learn, Vayne. Only time will tell.