Guild Wars 2

… onto the compost heap.

Are we going to get SAB returning shortly after?

Because lets be honest. This is the only living world update the majority of people enjoyed.

There will be plenty of people unhappy with whatever they release after Scarlet is gone.

With that being said, bring on the SAB. Nao.

Edit: Didn’t the “majority of people” enjoy Bazaar of the Four Winds? I didn’t see many complaints about it. It was one of my favorites :P

Tamaki Revolution.3548:

There will be plenty of people unhappy with whatever they release after Scarlet is gone.

With that being said, bring on the SAB. Nao.

Edit: Didn’t the “majority of people” enjoy Bazaar of the Four Winds? I didn’t see many complaints about it. It was one of my favorites :P

There were complaints.

There are complaints about the SAB too, not relating to the groin-punching difficulty of World 2.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

There were complaints.

There are complaints about the SAB too, not relating to the groin-punching difficulty of World 2.

Well I’d expect complaints about everything in any MMO. Just meant from this mythical majority.

I would enjoy most things more than SAB. It’s true some people enjoyed the first release of SAB. Maybe not so much, the second release. Can’t imagine what the third release will be like.

Still, I’d rather have something new, and open world, than a return of SAB.

I think what made SAB a success was because it was a totally new, unique world to explore within the Guild Wars 2 setting and the least grindy living story update by far.

Why can’t SAB stay permanently? I don’t understand its got no ties to the living story right? it was just a feature content addition and yet they still removed it? -.-

Kindeller.3072:

Why can’t SAB stay permanently? I don’t understand its got no ties to the living story right? it was just a feature content addition and yet they still removed it? -.-

Probably because it was an April Fool’s Day related thing which was incredibly popular for being entertaining. I don’t expect it was planned as anything other than a fun diversion from things.

Not a permanent fixture for the game to have in it. Just a recurring one.

On top of that… honestly how long would SAB actually REMAIN interesting if you could play it constantly? It’d become just like every other non-farming zone, ignored for being “boring.”

Can’t wait to get my sexy red and purple SAB weapons.

Azure Prower.8701:

I think what made SAB a success was because it was a totally new, unique world to explore within the Guild Wars 2 setting and the least grindy living story update by far.

Ahahahahahahahahaha.

Yeah…. no need to do every level 10+ times in order to get all the upgrades and/or achievements and stuff like that… Oh wait..

lordkrall.7241:

Yeah…. no need to do every level 10+ times in order to get all the upgrades and/or achievements and stuff like that… Oh wait..

In other words, despite having requirements to repeat the content for 100% completion the SAB still felt less grindy than the other living story brackets. Someone at Anet should be taking notes.

SAB 2 was too hard for me and there was no way I was playing that and Im not even interested in SAB 3 or 4. Its sad because I loved SAB 1.

SAB 2 was awful, probably the worst patch so far in this game. We need more Guild Wars in our GW2, not less.

SAB World 2 came down to learning basic mechanics you picked up from playing this game and the old school games. World 3 likely will not be released until March or April. I’d assume they want to finish the current living story season first.

SAB 2 was about challenge and to increase the challenge it wasn’t the type of puzzle that changed so skills learned from playing Manic Miner or Frogger or Sonic were not going to make much difference after you made it through SAB1. The sequel was more about the timing and accuracy with keyboard and mouse and so nothing to do with basic mechanics and all to do with dexterity, observance, reflex and possibly affected by various types of lag

First release of SAB was awesome. Then world two came out and it just killed all enjoyment I got from it. It would have been more enjoyable if there were more zones instead of keeping same number of zones and increasing the length of each of them.
Will reserve judgement of world 3 for when it comes out. Hopefully they learned from all the hate world 2 got.
Definitely can’t wait for the red versions (as long as they’re red/blood red colored, and not pale red/pink).

SAB could I guess be described as grindy, but only if you make it so. By the end of the first release of it, it kinda was for me only because I kept running it with about 8 characters every night so I could have enough BB to get several copies of each of the skins (which I’m now glad I did so, since they removed them).

At least with SAB it put in a way to get ingame weapon/back item skins without needing to buy them from the gemstore (or get lucky with those kitten RNG boxes). This kind of system needs to be added more, and less RNG based ones.

As for Scarlet, I highly doubt we’ll finish her off for good at the end of season 1. I’m sure she’ll be back in later LS, cuz you know, she’s Scarlett and all. She’ll probably come back as ghost/mecha scarlett (or just scarlett 2.0, corrupted by X dragon, or she’ll be he dragon, etc.)…

joneb.5679:

SAB 2 was too hard for me and there was no way I was playing that and Im not even interested in SAB 3 or 4. Its sad because I loved SAB 1.

W2 was fine (after the waterfall fix XD) Main problem was just how insanely long it was, especially with Z3 with no save points and such.

W2 Zone 2 Trib did make me want to murder small kittens tho. Honestly the most enraging thing I ever experienced in a video game. I started seeing random spike traps in my mind even outside of SAB after a while. It was traumatizing. XD

I liked ToN. It was fun, and had cutsenses like in Guild Wars. I hope we get more of that.

joneb.5679:

SAB 2 was about challenge and to increase the challenge it wasn’t the type of puzzle that changed so skills learned from playing Manic Miner or Frogger or Sonic were not going to make much difference after you made it through SAB1. The sequel was more about the timing and accuracy with keyboard and mouse and so nothing to do with basic mechanics and all to do with dexterity, observance, reflex and possibly affected by various types of lag

No. In World 1 you could just run around everything and there was minimal jumping needed. World 2 was very different as you were required to jump more and the enemies required certain mechanics. The ninjas had a mechanic to learn since you end rally could not just ignore them like a lot of people attempted to unsuccessfully. You had puzzles (although basic) that you needed to overcome to proceed further.

I referenced older games because if you had played those, you would have found World 2 to be pretty easy and a breeze. The only timing and accuracy portion was with TM which to be honest was supposed to be a pain to do.

Doggie.3184:

joneb.5679:

SAB 2 was too hard for me and there was no way I was playing that and Im not even interested in SAB 3 or 4. Its sad because I loved SAB 1.

W2 was fine (after the waterfall fix XD) Main problem was just how insanely long it was, especially with Z3 with no save points and such.

W2 Zone 2 Trib did make me want to murder small kittens tho. Honestly the most enraging thing I ever experienced in a video game. I started seeing random spike traps in my mind even outside of SAB after a while. It was traumatizing. XD

Each zone could easily be done in 30 minutes which is your average dungeon path time. Seems completely reasonable to me. Zone 3 had plenty of checkpoints. I think there were about 5 or so.

Ayrilana.1396:

joneb.5679:

SAB 2 was about challenge and to increase the challenge it wasn’t the type of puzzle that changed so skills learned from playing Manic Miner or Frogger or Sonic were not going to make much difference after you made it through SAB1. The sequel was more about the timing and accuracy with keyboard and mouse and so nothing to do with basic mechanics and all to do with dexterity, observance, reflex and possibly affected by various types of lag

No. In World 1 you could just run around everything and there was minimal jumping needed. World 2 was very different as you were required to jump more and the enemies required certain mechanics. The ninjas had a mechanic to learn since you end rally could not just ignore them like a lot of people attempted to unsuccessfully. You had puzzles (although basic) that you needed to overcome to proceed further.

I referenced older games because if you had played those, you would have found World 2 to be pretty easy and a breeze. The only timing and accuracy portion was with TM which to be honest was supposed to be a pain to do.

Doggie.3184:

joneb.5679:

SAB 2 was too hard for me and there was no way I was playing that and Im not even interested in SAB 3 or 4. Its sad because I loved SAB 1.

W2 was fine (after the waterfall fix XD) Main problem was just how insanely long it was, especially with Z3 with no save points and such.

W2 Zone 2 Trib did make me want to murder small kittens tho. Honestly the most enraging thing I ever experienced in a video game. I started seeing random spike traps in my mind even outside of SAB after a while. It was traumatizing. XD

Each zone could easily be done in 30 minutes which is your average dungeon path time. Seems completely reasonable to me. Zone 3 had plenty of checkpoints. I think there were about 5 or so.

Not ones that allowed you to exit or anything. Should of chopped the zone up into segments or something. Z3 Tribulation mode could take 2-8 hours and forces you to take different and longer routes. o.O and being disconnected was a disaster.

Too much of a focus on things like the SAB leads to a loss of identity. If the game were to discard its lore and characters than it would lose it’s identity completely. What separates it from any other generic game out there? The title is already generic enough as it is.

If this were a pvp only game than that probably would be fine. You just need a smattering of aesthetics and flavoring to enhance the battle mechanics and arenas.

Here’s hoping 2014 brings in something the reinvigorate the non-core PvE content, post-Scarlet.

I have no idea what you meant in your first sentence about exiting. TM was supposed to be time consuming and a pain to do. That was the intent. A lot of the time could be reduced once those of us that finished first started posting guides on how to do them.

I also want to mention that the 30 minutes was in reference to TM completion time which was normally equal or greater than completion times on normal mode.

Zhaneel.9208:

Too much of a focus on things like the SAB leads to a loss of identity. If the game were to discard its lore and characters than it would lose it’s identity completely. What separates it from any other generic game out there?

To be honest? Jumping puzzles. Done well.

That is the only single thing that makes this game unique.

sab is something we’ve already had, something we know we’ll get. don’t you guys have any imagination?

i want to take down the corrupt minister caudecus. i want to explore the floating tower off the coast of wizards fief. i wanna find out what happened to the spirits of the wild that went missing when jormag forced the norn to flee the far shiverpeaks. i want to see rox and rytlock on a mission together as fellow members of the stone warband. i want to see if braham and zojja would get along together or be at odds with each other like zojja and eir. i want to witness the cataclysmic rise of an elder dragon and survive like almorra soulkeeper and cobiah mariner. i want to help regg find an extra spacial discombobulator to fix the broken asura gate to the polymock arenas. i want to travel to the steam-creature’s realm of origin. i want new story and explorable dungeons. i want more personal story. i want more dynamic events and i want them to matter.

SAB is amazing, but i want more.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

There were complaints.

There are complaints about the SAB too, not relating to the groin-punching difficulty of World 2.

^ this. I really enjoyed SAB1 and hardly even looked at SAB2. A side game is not where I want the games most challenging content. It too more into a headache than fun for me.

I’d rather have Anet create some stories with existing lore… Elder Dragons, Palawa Joko, maybe even add Tengu to the game.

And I hope SAB never comes back, because, let’s be honest, it doesn’t really fit into the game and it’s boring as hell.

I would like SAB to get much more difficult. Better, accessible rewards is also important as well. Maybe allow bauble bubbles to be exchanged for various items that are not skins (transformation tonics, mini’s, SAB Box o’ Fun, crafting ingredients, knowledge tomes, etc).

In regards to SAB, harder content (Tribulation mode was a really great addition!), new World and a nice deep story that links in with the short story that was posted back in September – it would be great if the story didn’t necessarily have achievements but unveiled itself through cutscenes, etc. as you go through a (new?) SAB world – we already have a brilliant platform, princess captured – please expand on what Moto wants, who this ‘dark shadow’ is and his motives, as well as why the Princess was captured in the first place.

Yes!!!! Plzzzz… SAB!! Plsss beg you on my knees..
You can do it Josh Foreman!!

What do i like to see? More team friendly SAB… so less solo ..bcos i sux altho i like it! :p my /deaths went from 2k to 12k last SAB patch

Make it purchasable to be played solo the home instance. So my 3 yo daughter can play easy mode any time

BobbyStein.2315:

[SNIP] …Or would you like future LW releases to cover other topics? Share your thoughts, but please keep it constructive. Thanks.

Honestly, it does not matter what topics are covered in the LW releases; if I cannot play through the content at my own pace, I will not play it at all. It is so frustrating to have my play timeframe constantly dictated by ANet. You folks put a lot of work into this stuff, I know, but my enjoyment of it is completely spoiled by the stress of waiting for the carrot to be yanked away.

BobbyStein.2315:

Azure Prower.8701:

… onto the compost heap.

Are we going to get SAB returning shortly after?

Because lets be honest. This is the only living world update the majority of people enjoyed.

Actually, we have metrics on every LW release. While SAB was indeed successful in terms of participation, so were the other releases (Scarlet ones included). I understand that forum feedback can color perception on which releases were the most popular/best received/most enjoyed but opinions on this are largely anecdotal. Please keep that in mind.

Now to your question: will we see a return of SAB? That’s not for me to say, but if it were to come back, what would people like to see from it? Harder/easier content? New world? More/no Moto story?

Or would you like future LW releases to cover other topics? Share your thoughts, but please keep it constructive. Thanks.

Oh come on Bobby, you can’t just tease a whole mysterious storyline involving Moto and the other krewe and then never resolve it! Besides, everyone is already expecting World 3 and 4. I’d be extremely disappointed if SAB was left unfinished. Not only is it incredibly unique, it’s a very welcome change of pace. I think this game could use more fleshed out, non-combat related activities (not minigames), and SAB is a perfect example of that.

As for content difficulty, I remember this was discussed very thoroughly during the release (and was one of the single best examples of dev communication we’ve had since GW2 came out). I think it was generally agreed that World 2 was a too steep of a jump in difficulty considering the fact that a World 3 and World 4 would still be on the way. Maybe some additional adjustments to World 2 to make it easier/shorter in the next release, with World 3 being of comparable difficulty to the old World 2. Then for World 4? Go all out, baby. I’ve got nothing but praise for Josh Foreman and his SAB team, and I can’t wait to see what they cook up next.

SAB I beg you, please return it and make it HARD. Not just hard but HARD HARD. The kind of orichalcum hard that is too hard to make that’s what she said jokes about because it’s too hard for her to enjoy it.
It needs to be Zojja’s Warhammer Earthshaker on an immobilized zerker ele with no stun breakers HARD.

Lolol niels
makes suuuuuper hard for you!!! Hear ppl scream thier lungs out

BobbyStein.2315:

Actually, we have metrics on every LW release. While SAB was indeed successful in terms of participation, so were the other releases (Scarlet ones included). I understand that forum feedback can color perception on which releases were the most popular/best received/most enjoyed but opinions on this are largely anecdotal. Please keep that in mind.

Now to your question: will we see a return of SAB? That’s not for me to say, but if it were to come back, what would people like to see from it? Harder/easier content? New world? More/no Moto story?

Or would you like future LW releases to cover other topics? Share your thoughts, but please keep it constructive. Thanks.

I think the SAB is what made April Fools for Guild Wars 2 so keeping with that trend like all of the other holidays I think would be a step in the right direction. I know the patch after the Scarlet arc is a big features update. Would it be possible to add the SAB to that patch as well just for 2 weeks?

I think expanding what is already there is also good. You need to progress to World 3 for the most part, but leave a little story about Moto, the Genie, and the other krewe. Nothing major, just a new bit about Moto’s history, have the Genie appear in World 4 preview, and checking in to see what the other krewe is doing after the incident would be enough.

I will admit that World 2 had some issues at first, such as the gong room and the rapids, but these problems were resolved. It was said somewhere I believe by Josh that the SAB was designed to get harder as you progressed, taking what you learn, and applying it to the next World. This should still be the case despite the complaints.

People like the SAB and I can see only 2 reasons as to why people played it less:

• Rewards were capped
• The event lasted a month

I think why SAB 1 went so well was because it lasted for a short while, people didn’t expect it, and it allowed them to farm it for as long as they wanted to during that 2 week time. With the troubles that started in SAB 2 and the change in rewards, the players didn’t have a need to play through the SAB once they finished it.

I could be wrong, I would have to look at the metrics of SAB 1 vs. SAB 2

BobbyStein.2315:

Azure Prower.8701:

… onto the compost heap.

Are we going to get SAB returning shortly after?

Because lets be honest. This is the only living world update the majority of people enjoyed.

Actually, we have metrics on every LW release. While SAB was indeed successful in terms of participation, so were the other releases (Scarlet ones included). I understand that forum feedback can color perception on which releases were the most popular/best received/most enjoyed but opinions on this are largely anecdotal. Please keep that in mind.

Now to your question: will we see a return of SAB? That’s not for me to say, but if it were to come back, what would people like to see from it? Harder/easier content? New world? More/no Moto story?

Or would you like future LW releases to cover other topics? Share your thoughts, but please keep it constructive. Thanks.

What do you mean by “successful?” Number of players who participated? If so, have you considered that some (many?) who participate don’t actually enjoy the content?

Metrics are good, but only if you interpret them correctly.

AngelsShadow.7360:

In regards to SAB, harder content (Tribulation mode was a really great addition!), new World and a nice deep story that links in with the short story that was posted back in September – it would be great if the story didn’t necessarily have achievements but unveiled itself through cutscenes, etc. as you go through a (new?) SAB world – we already have a brilliant platform, princess captured – please expand on what Moto wants, who this ‘dark shadow’ is and his motives, as well as why the Princess was captured in the first place.

Old school games rarely had a backstory or motive. Do you know why Bowser would always try to kidnap Princess Toadstool?

minbariguy.7504:

BobbyStein.2315:

[SNIP] …Or would you like future LW releases to cover other topics? Share your thoughts, but please keep it constructive. Thanks.

Honestly, it does not matter what topics are covered in the LW releases; if I cannot play through the content at my own pace, I will not play it at all. It is so frustrating to have my play timeframe constantly dictated by ANet. You folks put a lot of work into this stuff, I know, but my enjoyment of it is completely spoiled by the stress of waiting for the carrot to be yanked away.

All content in every LS could be experienced. The only thing that had time constraints for some were the achievement point hunters.

I would like to see more backstory for Moto. I really enjoyed the little sabotage we got to do outside the Super Aventure Box, and I also liked his backstory on the website. So more story surrounding SAB would be very welcome.

Difficulty wise, I felt that world 2 was a bit too frustrating, which didn’t help enjoyment of the levels. The levels were also way too long. Please make them shorter, and more on par with world 1. For example, all the extra pitfalls introduced in world 2, really affected overall difficulty.

I really loved Tribulation Mode, so also more of that please. I’m a glutton for punishment. Also, maybe the rewards for completing TM can be fancied up a bit. Just a different color staff is a bit bland. Maybe add an effect to it?

Azure Prower.8701:

… onto the compost heap.

Are we going to get SAB returning shortly after?

Because lets be honest. This is the only living world update the majority of people enjoyed.

SAB makes me nauseated and always gives me that car sick feeling. So I avoid it.

BobbyStein.2315:

This is a common complaint, and one that we’re very aware of. We’re discussing a variety of ideas that will allow players more flexibility in experiencing the Living World content, but we’re not ready to announce the details since the designs aren’t finalized yet.

I love how the last Living Story releases were kind of overlapping, or how the destruction of the tower was coupled with player interaction. It’s certainly a step in the right direction and shows your good will to adress our concerns. I have thought about some solutions myself, but it’s a tough nut to crack. Especially when you see people leaving the permanent stuff (which everyone wanted to have, me too) left behind and drift to the new content.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

I love how the last Living Story releases were kind of overlapping, or how the destruction of the tower was coupled with player interaction.

The destruction of the tower was not coupled with player interaction. Unless you believe that the player interaction caused it to be destroyed precisely on time, at the end of the two week interval.

Please do NOT put more of this illusionary content into the game.

sab fractal and sab spvp map naow!

BobbyStein.2315:

Azure Prower.8701:

… onto the compost heap.

Are we going to get SAB returning shortly after?

Because lets be honest. This is the only living world update the majority of people enjoyed.

Actually, we have metrics on every LW release. While SAB was indeed successful in terms of participation, so were the other releases (Scarlet ones included).

Your metrics for successful LW (ie how many people completed it for a reward) Is in no way shape or form related to how much fun or enjoyment was had by said players.

For the record Bazzar was the most fun.

BobbyStein.2315:

Now to your question: will we see a return of SAB? That’s not for me to say, but if it were to come back, what would people like to see from it? Harder/easier content? New world? More/no Moto story?

I would definitely like to see SAB come back. Ideally I’d like to see it make periodic returns until all Worlds have been completed, and then it remains in Rata Sum permanently.

I would also like to see the original blue SAB weapons become available again for those who may have missed out on them the first time. Having them drop from the boss chests at the end of each zone would probably be increased incentive for people to continue to do SAB even after all the Worlds are released.

In terms of difficulty, I think that World 2 was a bit excessive compared to World 1. I completed it (and enjoyed it), but I feel that the massive jump in difficulty also killed a lot of desire by the wider community to repeat the content. Tribulation Mode exists for those who want a challenge; I urge you guys to keep World 2 (and subsequent Worlds) nearer the length and difficulty of World 1, so more players are willing to form groups and head in.

I’m ambivalent about the Moto story. I liked getting more insight into him as a character, but I feel it also detracts a little from what made the SAB great in the first place; it was just a whimsical distraction completely disconnected from the rest of the GW2 world. A game within a game. That said, I wouldn’t be upset at seeing ANet continue to develop Moto’s story. I’m curious to see how it all plays out, and just what the Genie really is.

Dont bring that crap back, twice was one too many times for that lame content.
Flame and Frost coming back? Would like a chance at those firey looking weapons without having to waste gold or money on BLC keys .