Personal rewards from missions (A.net post):
In-world chests have been removed from existing PvE missions and have been replaced with personal reward chests. The great thing about giving personal rewards this way is that it allows us to reward players even if they disconnect or log out before they receive their mission rewards. As long as you participated in the mission and the mission has completed, you’ll receive your rewards, either when the mission completes or the next time you log in.
So currently guild missions are very buggy. I would very much like to believe that a.net knows this and is working on fixing it (though a dev post confirming this would do a lot to comfort worries about that). The purpose of this post is not to report bugs, but rather discuss what is required for earning personal rewards, and how this can be improved so players do not miss out on rewards for missions they participate in.
Note: My perspective is that of PvE only missions. Since I don’t have any experience with WvW or PvP missions, I did not mention them. If there are issues (not bugs) that could prevent members from obtaining their personal rewards, please mention them.
Bounty:
Current requirements for personal rewards:
As best as I can tell you currently need to be present at a target and have done damage to it to receive credit.
Problems with this system:
Currently we have only seen easy bounties which have been single targets. This makes them easy to find and follow while waiting for people missing the closest waypoint to run. I could be wrong, but it also seems like the health may scale better, making it easier for members to get a tag on the bounty (previously some of them would die in a few seconds, making tagging difficult).
What I see as the problem is when we start needing to do medium and hard versions of bounties. If all targets need to be defeated for personal rewards, it may not be possible to wait for guild members that are missing waypoints to run to the target. Granted, easy bounties are only one target (before they were two), and so far only “easy” targets (Trillia, Poobadoo, Brekkabek). It could be possible that instead of ramping up the number of targets, we instead get harder target to find/kill.
However, some targets are difficult to follow (1141) or attack as soon as they are found (Yanoka), making it even harder for members that are missing the closest waypoint (or are stuck in combat) to arrive for credit. Especially with the time limit to defeat the target once they are active.
Possible solutions:
Give any member that is on the map credit for participating
This means members that were helping search for the target, but unable to get to the location for the kill will all receive credit. This does also have the drawback of letting members afk in the map to receive credit.
remove the need to search for targets
By using an arena based instance (arena in guild hall, or queen’s gauntlet), the focus can be more on killing the bounty target instead of finding/getting to it – which honestly acts more as a barrier to people getting personal credit then an interesting mechanic of the mission. Members can ensure personal rewards by gathering outside the instance entrance point and entering once a guild officer starts the mission.
Guild Trek:
Current requirements for personal rewards:
Members need to interact with the marker in the map (or be within a very close proximity when it is interacted with – though this seems a bit random) to receive credit.
Problems with this system:
There is no clear indication to if members have received credit until the end of the mission. Also the points vanish off the map in a variable amount of time (between instant and 15 seconds). This makes it easy to miss personal credit.
Possible Solutions:
Give an event pop-up when interacting with a point
This allows members to know if they should head to a different point or can wait for the mission to complete
Make points stay on the map for the duration of the Trek
Allows members time to tag whichever point is easiest for them to get to for credit. I posted more about this suggestion here.
Remove the interact points and replace them with capture points
Gives members a clear indicator on if they are close enough to a capture point for credit. This is more of a compromise to the current system, as members that need time to run to a point would still miss credit if it is done early.
Guild Challenge & Puzzle
Current requirements for personal rewards:
There are currently bugs with players receiving credit for puzzle, but the intention seems to be that if players are in the instance during the puzzle or challenge, they will receive personal credit.
Problems with this system:
Other than the fact that it allows for members to AFK at the start and still receive credit, there’s nothing that greatly inhibits people from receiving personal credit other than the mentioned bugs with giving out rewards for puzzle (assuming I am understanding the intention of how rewards are given correctly).
Possible Solutions:
None needed really, though I don’t think it would be unreasonable to expect people to be in the final room of the puzzle or to participate in the event for challenge to earn personal rewards. However, with the lack of a waypoint/rally point, obstacles that respawn would prevent the main group of a guild from backtracking to help members that have fallen behind (currently taking a waypoint removes you from the instance).
Guild Rush
Current requirements for personal rewards:
There have been bugs with this mission type both completing and giving personal rewards, but the intention seems to be that members who finish the rush will receive rewards upon the completion of the rush (countdown reaching zero).
Problems with this system:
Other than the bugs preventing the mission from completing and giving personal completing, there are no problems (assuming I am reading the intention of how rewards are assigned correctly).
Possible Solutions:
Possibly make the Rush into an instance (like puzzle and challenge) to prevent issues of the rush conflicting with another guild.
That’s it for my thoughts. Please share you’re thoughts on the matter (especially PvP and WvW misisons). Also once again, this is not about bugs, please report those in the bug report forums.