Guild Wars 2

Just thought we should start a feedback thread so we can tell ANet what we liked/didn’t like about the new jumping puzzle and suggestions for future jumping puzzles because I have seen multiple threads about this for very specific parts of them.

First off, I like the timed jumping puzzles.
It makes them more intense to get them right as fast as possible.
I also like constant freeze damage so you cant just take it nice and slow so you have to run it literally for your life.
I will say that it wasn’t as hard as the Mad King Clock Tower so ANet, MAKE THEM HARDER!!!!
Something I can complete in 5mins is not hard enough
Don’t listen to the people who say they are too hard. They are just not putting in the time or effort and solely want the rewards for it so they can get their weapon/armor skins.
For me, the challenge is a big part of the reward.

So in short from me, Harder Jumping Puzzle = Better Jumping Puzzle.

Anet, why? Why do you feel we need timed jump puzzles? What is the point in making them timed? I only have one hand and I can do most jump puzzles but the clock tower and the Wintersday jump puzzle I am not able to participate because I can’t/couldn’t get past the first two steps. I have to take my time with jump puzzles, but looks like another event I don’t get to enjoy.

Thing I found off is that if I missed a platform I was teleported back to the snow ball fight. Possible bug or working as intended?

No that is as intended, you have to restart every time you fall. It’s the same as the clocktower at halloween

The puzzle on the karka island was timed too, it’s what they do to make them more difficult.

The one on the southsun cove can be bipassed. And you can’t tell me there are not more creative ways to make them more difficult. Maybe a gauntlet style jump puzzle.

These timed ones blow… at least the Halloween one I could at least attempt due to a decent delay in the start time to give people time to load into the JP itself, this one the snowflakes start melting before I even load in (and getting a new computer is NOT an option at this point). Timed puzzles behind a loading screen are a bad thing. since not everybody has the same load in delay. Just having the snowflakes start melting say 5 seconds later would be more than enough time to give people on lower spec machines a fair shot to actually START this puzzle

the puzzle is way to easy its ridiculous i was looking forward to a clock tower puzzle

CrusaderRabbit.7460:

Anet, why? Why do you feel we need timed jump puzzles? What is the point in making them timed?

Making them slightly different from all the other non-timed jumping puzzles that are already in the game and that you can do whenever you want…?

The problem I have with the jumping puzzle is that it’s horribly laggy and I keep getting teleported back to the start even though (on my client) I didn’t miss any jumps. I guess it’ll improve once there are less people doing it.

It should be doable one handed by binding jump to a mouse button (I imagine you have them or else your experience in the rest of the game would be compromised) as left+right click makes you run. I’ll try it one hande myself and get back to you.

I sympathise with your situation but, as much as it may suck, you are in a small minority and as such, can only expect to be catered for in ways that don’t compromise the experience for others. The timer happens to be what makes these puzzles a different and, in my opinion, more enjoyable challenge from all the other puzzles in the game.

lordkabal.4857:

Timed puzzles behind a loading screen are a bad thing.

It’s really odd why the game can’t simply load the jumping puzzle while you’re in the “lobby”, and then switch instantly. The whole map caching in GW2 is weird. Sometimes I teleport between two WPs in the same city (which are even in viewing distance of each other) and the game makes me go through a 20-second loading screen (off an array that transfers at 700 MB/s – I can only imagine if I had the game on a normal HDD).

The entire of GW2 should not be designed around a minority of players who have trouble. Pretty silly thing to say.

ya they should make 3 difficulty. easy mode, normal mode and hard mode. Easy mode is for people like me. And you can play the hard mode.

the puzzle is way to easy its ridiculous i was looking forward to a clock tower puzzle

jump puzzles are a freaking joke… they are the worse idea ever… soo not worth the effort trying to get past them… freaking anet..

I’ve actually been having a really hard time with this, because I’m not very good at jumping things. Poor hand-eye coordination I guess. The snowflakes could last a couple seconds longer.

I think being able to do it in a solo instance would be nice, too. It gets distracting with a bunch of people going at the same time.

I like a challenge as much as the next person, but not being able to make it very far is pretty discouraging.

It’s way too easy compared to the clock tower. I beat this 1 on my first try the clocktower 1 took around 10-15 tries maybe they could make 1 easy for the majority and a harder 1 for others?

I’m all for puzzles, but I really don’t get too much enjoyment out of anything timed — dodging stuff, fine.

I just have to get used to the tempo of things, as I previously did the clocktower. Having a precise mouse really helps. I’ve had to switch out my palm fit mouse for a claw grip one last time to get the right response I wanted.

This is my all time favorite jumping puzzle and I’ll be VERY sad to see it go. The atmosphere brings back the same magic I once had as a child when experiencing the wonder of the holiday season.

I’ve never seen such a well done place in any mmo, it’s fantastic.

Now for constructive feedback, it was a little too easy. Got it on my third try. I can understand why it was made easier (personally I loved clock tower) but still, I like a challenge.

I got it on the 3rd try ~ the difficulty for the JP was just right. Not too hard, not frustrating either – this is someone everyone can enjoy. I’m glad the developers are listening, so far ~ this event is looking promising

Can’t even play the jumping puzzle, I like timed ones though (MKCT was fun to complete)
“It’s way too easy compared to the clock tower. I beat this 1 on my first try the clocktower 1 took around 10-15 tries maybe they could make 1 easy for the majority and a harder 1 for others?”
Side note, am I the only one who found the clocktower easy after the first time? It took a lot of tries still, but then I beat it every time.

Rainfall.4017:

The entire of GW2 should not be designed around a minority of players who have trouble. Pretty silly thing to say.

Wow. Way to support someone with a disability. A solution is easy-make 2 or 3 levels of difficulty. Easy=slow melting snowflakes. Hard=fast melting. You get the same achievement but better rewards for the harder one. Simple.

I paid for this game, I invested in their product, why should I not be able to participate because they aren’t creative enough to come up with a jump puzzle that is challenging and people like me don’t have to redo it 7,000 times

Vortex, it’s not even that. Why not make jump puzzles that have walls that close and traps that spring etc.

I don’t care about the flakes melting behind you, that’s fine. Waiting for a minute+ to start again is ridiculous. I thought halloween was bad, this one seems longer.

Really, make them harder? REALLY? No thank you.

“Don’t listen to the people who say they are too hard. They are just not putting in the time or effort and solely want the rewards for it so they can get their weapon/armor skins.”

Really narrow minded thought pattern there bud

wait time between tries is way too long ><

Finished on the 3rd try, you can dodge roll through most of the stuff at the end. Overall, really easy, was always ahead of everyone. I liked the Halloween puzzle, though I was expecting to be this one easier but it’s A LOT easier. I didn’t even realize the snowflakes go away after you jump on them. Guess that’s why no one was ever behind me…

I think there was some improvements made. Funneling the people to different areas is nice (I ended up by myself one time – was weird). I think it addressed most issues people had. I enjoyed it, but was definitely a difficulty difference from the Halloween one.

The ending was a bit hard and buggy for me. Just getting knocked off by invisible things? And reloading endlessly after that.

The presents exploding freaked me out the first time. xD

It’s a lot of fun. Beaten it around 15 to 20 times in around an hour. They listened. They made it so you’re split at the beginning and meld together at the end which rocks, and there are A LOT less bugs.

I also enjoyed the clocktower immensely though…many people say they didn’t, but I LOVED IT.

1. Takes too long to start.

2. Timed puzzles aren’t fun. (But puzzles with timing ARE fun.)

3. We need difficulty levels for these jumping puzzles.

Biscuithammer.8615:

1. Takes too long to start.

2. Timed puzzles aren’t fun. (But puzzles with timing ARE fun.)

3. We need difficulty levels for these jumping puzzles.

THIS

I don’t mind puzzles that you have to time your jumps just right, but forcing players to progress forward at a rate some (if not many) can move? Bad form

They are freaking stupid and the time wasted to create these stupid puzzles with every event could be used for other more you know “mmo” type stuff.

Rainfall.4017:

The entire of GW2 should not be designed around a minority of players who have trouble. Pretty silly thing to say.

Nor should it be designed around bad design. Timed jumping puzzles on a 3D game with an unstable camera. Timed jumping puzzles in general are just a cheap way to inflate difficulty without adding any actual intellectual difficulty to it. Like the limited lives/insert coin to continue system of old arcade games.

Wow, no exotic for this one? Such a waste of time.

ProxyDamage.9826:

Rainfall.4017:

The entire of GW2 should not be designed around a minority of players who have trouble. Pretty silly thing to say.

Nor should it be designed around bad design. Timed jumping puzzles on a 3D game with an unstable camera. Timed jumping puzzles in general are just a cheap way to inflate difficulty without adding any actual intellectual difficulty to it. Like the limited lives/insert coin to continue system of old arcade games.

Couldn’t agree more. It was said on another post:

Timed jump puzzles are a bad idea. Jump puzzles that you must time your jumps, good idea

This puzzle was fantastic fun!

I got it on my third run though (only because on the first, I got hit by a Windows Update pop-up. Microsoft, you’ve screwed me over for the last time!)

But yeah, it was much easier for me than the Clock Tower. The lack of disorienting motion on screen made it a lot easier for me to keep focus. That said, I had only 500ish health at the end and was getting hit for 104 per tick.

The pressure was there, the jumps were daunting (especially the candy canes on the side of the towers) and the visuals were A-MAZ-AHHHH!

Next time, I hope for a non-timed puzzle, but one where you really have to think your moves through. Maybe a jumping puzzle that literally is a puzzle?

A minority of players cannot complete these timed puzzles is what you are saying? This may be statistically true. But, everyone I know except for two people can finish every other jumping puzzle in the game without jump shot/leap of faith/portal. However, only 2 people I know can do these timed puzzles. This is out of 60 or 70 people. I hear a lot of angry voices in the wait rooms for the puzzles.

From what I have observed, the minority are the people who can complete them. I saw many players resorting to hacks that enabled them to skip large portions of the Clock Tower puzzle, where they would be waiting for legitimate players to catch up, and throw slander at them every chance that they had. They made mockery of several trying to complete the puzzle, yet they also could not legitimately make the jumps.

Not everyone plays Guild Wars 2 via the same control schema. I have successfully done all of the other jumping puzzles fine by taking the time to line up my jumps. I do not use the mouse to move during my jumps, except in a few rare instances. This is one of the reasons that I think that these puzzles should not be timed. Not everyone uses this fps-style WASD/mouse combination. Making a puzzle challenging is fine. Making it fun is fine. Finding ways to let large amounts of people do them simultaneously without the timer is a challenge. But I would like something that doesn’t push just about everyone I know to violent cursing, damage to their equipment, and negative sentiment towards an otherwise good game. I think many agree with this point — Christmas and rage don’t mix. The truly patient people that I know amongst my group will just give up and not do these puzzles, as they don’t want to lose their temper. The others push themselves to long hours of attempts filled with rage and the inevitable rage quit. Challenging games are fine, and not every challenge is expected to be completed.

But, finding the right balance of challenge to fun is much harder — and I think that Guild Wars 2 has failed miserably at that with both holiday puzzles. They just aren’t fun; and I believe that is the true majority sentiment, as much pain and cursing as I witnessed in the Clock Tower over several hours for several days. Even both players that can do the puzzles that I know did not like them and found them annoying.

Reporting back. It was tougher than doing it normally but eventually I managed to complete it using only one hand so quit your jibber jabber and keep trying!

Also, I don’t find the timer to be cheap at all. It’s a entirely different type of challenge to a puzzle that requires different skill sets.

Seriously. I cannot figure out why they keep doing this. Jumping puzzles don’t need to be timed to be challenging.

i dont mind timed jumping puzzles, i do however mind that the first snowflake is already shattering before i can even see it

Beat it on my 4th or 5th attempt than put it on farm after that. It’s incredibly easy. I don’t see why anyone is annoyed with it, unless they are complaining that it’s too easy.

Not again!
(I had such high hopes that ArenaNet had listened to the feedback from the Halloween jumping puzzle fiasco.)

I like jumping puzzles. I like the ones in GuildWars2 . I really do. I like them all, except the timed jumping puzzles in special events!

ArenaNet, why do you make the jumping puzzles for special events so different from the jumping puzzles in the rest of the game?
(And, no, this is not a suggestion to change the other jumping puzzles to include more timed elements – heaven forbid!)

The jumping puzzles for Special Events could be such wonderful explorations, available to all. Instead of using a mix of static and dynamic elements to make a truly interesting and challenging puzzle, they use a cheap gimmick to make them ‘harder’.

If you want to encourage people to do these ‘puzzles’ (that really is a misleading word for them), let them make some progress before dropping them out on something as arbitrary as a timer. As it stands, the people who most need to spend time learning how to do these sorts of puzzles get the least time in the zone doing so (99% of their time is spent waiting for the next round). At least with the timed elements in Southsun Cove, the player can retry those elements immediately without dead waiting time in between.

Maybe it’s because I have an Asura character, and the angle on some of the ‘platforms’ is much harder to gauge from that angle. But if that’s the case, ArenaNet, why are you giving us puzzles that handicap particular races?

One idea would be to have slower starter puzzles that people can use to develop their skills before tackling the full speed version.

If you’re having a hard time with the difficult songs, stick around until the playlist repeats. You’ll still be rewarded for completing the easier songs.

Great idea (for the Bell Choir). Maybe you can do something similar for the jumping ‘puzzle’ next time.

Rainfall.4017:

The entire of GW2 should not be designed around a minority of players who have trouble. Pretty silly thing to say.

Yes, but is really a minority of people? IIRC, there was a whole thread for people who completed the Halloween jumping puzzle and it only had a few posts on it, while there were far more posts frustrated about it (including from people who completed it).

I would prefer varying degrees of difficulty as well. It’s not like it’s going to hurt anyone to have it range from super easy to super hard. It’s a game.

The part I dislike the most about these “holiday jumping puzzles” is that they don’t encourage teamwork, and prevent you from using weapon abilities and skills. In open-world jumping puzzles you will see people portaling each other to various areas, speed buffing each other, rezzing the ones that fall and die, using abilities that have light effects for dark areas of the map so everyone can see…it’s a team event and it is a lot more fun. The more experienced players can carry some of the weight for the less experience ones, and eventually when everyone gets to the end there is a sense of accomplishment.

In the end nobody cares about the engineer who had to use jump shot on every ledge, or the ranger that had to cast call of the wild to make jumps everyone else could make without a buff, or the mesmer that stayed behind to portal the person every 90 seconds, or the engineer that went ahead and lit up the next jump with a flamethrower for the person behind them. All they cared about was getting everyone to the end. I don’t really see the point in having these instanced JP’s where you run with other people, and can’t help yourself or others with skills.

I promise that everyone saying that want varying degrees of difficulty on the jumping puzzles actually don’t. Here is why:

1. If the prizes are all the same people will complain that there is no justification to do the harder difficulties.

2. If the prizes are are varied based on difficulty everyone who does the easier difficulties will complain that they aren’t getting the same rewards as the higher difficulties.

I’m sure Anet thought about that ages ago and neutered the whole idea by just making them one difficulty level.

Gone back to try again.
One consolation (yeah, right!) I get time to post on these forums between attempts.

Definitely handicapped being an Asura, both in terms of perspective on platforms and being unable to see my own character among larger ones. (Didn’t even get past the second jump that time as I couldn’t see my self in the crowd.) Getting a different path each time doesn’t help either.

If it wasn’t for the achievement…

Oh well, will try again in a minute.

It was disappointing honestly. Setting aside the bugs such as getting ported back even when you didn’t fall, it just wasn’t very difficult. Not only were the jumps themselves easy, there wasn’t anything hard to figure out. The paths were very straight forward with no real tricks to work around.

Anet continues to disappoint me with their apathy towards their skilled players, in every facet of the game. I think they use a half drunk middle aged woman as their difficulty bar, and any time something is too hard for her, it gets nerfed or replaced with something easier.

I beat it as an Asura. I bet you keep failing at the candy cane pole ledges. I suggest you simply take your time on those, you will have the time to spare if are quick with the rest of it.

When I loaded in, I thought it looked…awesome. Couldn’t wait to jump it, cause…so pretty ^-^ Then the snowflake melted under me. I realised there’s no time for sightseeing and…left. Disappointed. They create this gorgeous place and then make you rush through it…

Roll.6329:

Wow, no exotic for this one? Such a waste of time.

If the only thing you care about is the pixels you get at the end, have you considered slot machines?