Everyone who thinks this was too easy and you feel “bought down” to the level of others undeservedly, go do something with your life. Stop trying to exclude others in an online community just so you feel accomplished. Its a game, not a measure of you as a person. It didn’t feel like a huge accomplishment? Get a promotion at work.
Jesus christ some people are so self-absorbed.
You could stand to be a bit less condescending yourself while trying to lecture people about being self-absorbed.
Some people simply like a challenge. Its not fun because other people can’t do it, its just fun because its challenging. Something to work towards, something that takes some practice to do. The accomplishment is beating something difficult. It has nothing to do with other people not being able to do it and feeling “superior”, its just fun to for some to struggle through something and come out on top.
Mind you, I’m sure there are SOME people who like to beat something just to rub it in other peoples faces. But implying that everyone who mentions it being easy and wishes it was harder only wants it harder to screw other people is a bit too much.
It would be fine if it were instanced – the problem is that the other players stop you from seeing your own character, and the time limit stops you from waiting for them to pass.
The good, a reduction in difficulty. The bad, its still timed and and multiplayer. It hasn’t been that long since Mad King so I doubt they’ve had time to make any changes to things already underway so it might take a few events until we see the downsides removed.
As much as I enjoyed the puzzle and really struggled through missing simple jumps, this was a little too easy for me to gain any thrill in finishing. Dont get me wrong, it was fun and took me a little while to finish but I didnt get the sense of achievement I got through completing the clocktower.
A suggestion that would help with this- make the puzzle longer as opposed to more difficult. When you have to dodge the rolling snowballs I expected the path to go down and not up. What if there had been some tunnel system down there with alcoves you have to dodge into before getting squashed? Snowmen could throw snowballs at you to hinder your progress and youd then have to climb up some kind of festive tree (I didnt say Christmas!) to jump into the top of a present.
Also I thought the reward was a little poor. A unique skin for completing the puzzle would have been nice but instead I got a bunch of mats im never going to use. I look at my Mad King Slippers fondly as im wearing them and remember the struggle I overcame. I cant do that with some snowflakes I just put into my bank.
Finally… the wait times were awful. Snowball fights are great for the first few times you fail but after that youre left standing around for longer (it seems) than you did with the Clocktower.
Other than that I enjoyed the puzzle, thanks and well done.
Thereon Avenrise – former [Noes] Officer – Piken Square (EU)
Retired and living in a shack. Relaxing!
I really wish that it didn’t remove traited health, I went from 25k Hp to 17k HP. So when I first got to the final box I had 600 hp left and died inches from completing it.
Health and health loss are normalized. If you had more health, you would take more damage. The “frostbite damage” is really just a timer (it matches the timer bar that players see in the lobby). It ends at the same time for everyone, regardless of their health.
It would be fine if it were instanced – the problem is that the other players stop you from seeing your own character
It wouldn’t even need to be in a solo instance to fix that; they could simply render all other players on your screen as tiny snowmen, for example. That way you’d still get the feeling of competition but they wouldn’t get in the way, and there wouldn’t be a disparity between races (norns block the view of asuras but asuras don’t block norns).
I dont like this one because it is very linear. At no point are you thinking “Is that the way I should go?” or do you ever swing your camera around looking for another path or alternative. It felt more like a race, a race where everyone to made it to the end won first place. Or a race to try and beat the snow flakes.
At no point are you thinking “Is that the way I should go?” or do you ever swing your camera around looking for another path or alternative.
Er… actually, the first time I tried it, I got to the platform before the exploding gifts and, instead of going up, I started following the path back to one of the other starts. Then I saw a platform below mine, assumed it was like in the Clock Tower (were you had to jump down), and got teleported to the lobby (although the fall didn’t kill me).
Also, I’ve seen people turn left at the snowballs, despite the huge red arrow pointing right.
The part I really don’t understand is the mortars. They only seem to hit the ground under the snowballs, so they’re pointless. The only way a player would get hit by a mortar was if he was already being crushed by a snowball.
Disappearing platforms are a dumb mechanic (they’re a dumb mechanic in REAL platformers, too, and this isn’t anything close). They were terrible in Spekk’s Laboratory and they’re terrible here. I’ve never even gotten past the snowflakes because either they disintegrate beneath my feet or in my haste to keep up I can’t reorient myself and foul a jump.
You could make the snowflakes permanent and it would still be a decent jumping puzzle (“navigate a series of suspended platforms” is second only to “traverse ruins/a cave” as a jumping puzzle motif).
I hated this puzzle. Just when I got close to halfway I forgot to take off my double tap and flipped over the snowflake.
Ouch, I hate it when that happens to me. It can happen on any puzzle though.
I like this puzzle better than the tower. The timed aspect is still really irritating (why not make more puzzles that are actually puzzles, where you have to figure out where to go? Why are ANet devs so focused on speed?). I’d like more JPs that test awareness and puzzle skills, not ones that test our ping.
Also, taking all of our traits is nasty and not something I enjoyed at all. I can’t really see a reason for it. The whole point of the game is to have different viable builds, and suddenly in some parts ANet reverses direction and takes away parts of our characters. Not very fun. :/
The puzzle was a huge disappointment compared to the Halloween one and way too easy I thought. I did it first go even though I had no idea where to go or what to watch out for.
There needs to be long, timed, insane difficulty jumping puzzles where platforms are spaced such that it is only just possible to make the jump distance if you jump right at the very edge of a platform.
I’m really not a fan of the whole one sized fits all approach to jumping puzzles that ANet take.
Seems some people can’t be satisfied with the jumping puzzle, but i had a great time. Took me a little while but i got this one. Mad kings clock tower had this tiny block in the way that i constantly died on.
Glad it’s split up between a few paths so not everyone is jumbled in at the only starting area. Still a bit annoying when your character gets lost in a horde of 5 charr though, but manageable if you use the same character for all jumping puzzles.
I gave up trying to finish timed jumping puzzle. Not really good at jumping in this game. Could not get past the first snowflakes. Most of the time, I jumped to my death instead of the second snowflakes.
Different starting paths for me is an improvement comparing it to the clocktower so its not so crowded at the start, but still clocktower was way better and rewarding, the winter one is forgettable, i think they made it with an average difficulty in mind. Also i didnt like the music somehow it didnt fit the JP anyway…
I liked it but not so much.
I don’t like the WD puzzle at all. The snow flake segment is too long and repetitive with no skill or timing required. None of the jumps are difficult or require the least bit of precision.
MKCT had a lot of jumps where you had to be very precise and land exactly the right distance. The jump onto the little bar just before the leap of faith, the jump onto the teeth of the gear, etc.
In the future, I would like to see them add different levels to the puzzle. If you fall, you don’t go back and sit for an hour, you land on a lower level that is a little easier (not that this one could have been any easier) and continue on for lesser rewards if you can complete them. There should also be additional chests along the way on the highest path. Stopping to grab them all on the way up added to the CT challenge. Am I having a good run? Can I stop and grab the 2nd chest and still make the next jump before the mist catches me? It added a lot to the puzzle.
“We recognize that the changes to [ele] will essentially remove it from play. In the future,
we may consider whether or not there is an incarnation of [ele] that would be viable
but balanced. For now, we do not expect it to see serious use.” – ANet
As soon as i saw the wait times i left, i didn’t even try the jump puzzle more than twice, its just frustration, i did the same in Halloween too, just left cause of the unneeded and pointless timers
Definetly agree that it needs to be harder, it seems a shame to have someone work so hard on making something like this to be played for 5 minutes per person and then to never be seen again
My take on this is that it bears a similarity to Spekk’s Laboratory. That puzzle was incredibly frustrating to me until I came back the next day and discovered the golems would teleport you to the furthest station you had made it to. After that it was fun, rather than tedious jumping back to my last position to try again. I could measure my progress through that puzzle, and complete it, even though I found it fairly difficult.
On the surface, stations don’t work well with this type of timer, but it can be done. The stations can pause the condition that saps HP while you wait for the next leg to reset. Each leg is progressively harder. Grant the achievement at the first or second station. Start giving item rewards at the second.
You can keep the timer, but add stations to rest and serve as progress checkpoints.
I’ll try to make this short. I like the area, it’s new, it’s fun. The puzzle, if that’s what you want to call it, feels like just a sprint. You aren’t actually solving anything, you are just let loose with about 5 other people on the same platform bumrushing the course. So while that may be some people’s thing, it’s definitely not mine.
I like being able to have time to look at something and solve it, which you don’t get the chance to do here. That’s a disappointment to me, but I’ll just hope your team can find ways other than racing to make a puzzle captivating.
From a scale of 1-10 I’d rank it about a 6. The scenery is awesome, the puzzle,or lack-there-of, is just not.
I got to the end, got the achievement, wandered around the platform for a few minutes wondering why I was there (there was nothing there other than the NPCs and the cheering gingerbread). Went back to Lion’s Arch only to find out later that there was supposed to be a chest? Wasn’t there for me! Not that I missed much though, a couple of snowflakes and some karma. Whoopee.
I HATED the clock tower because of the timer not allowing me to have a thought. I am very happy that the forced death was delayed a second longer with this one, made all the difference, but if the only way you can think of to make these challenging is to enact a timer, you’re doing something wrong.
I loved this jumping puzzle. CT took me over 8 hours, and I loved that one as well. This one took only about 5 tries… but it was beautiful, and I loved the music!
I support difficulty levels, because I would have preferred something a little tougher. I don’t mind wasting my time with the challenge because I find it fun. However, I’m fairly confident that if there’s a hard level, that rewards nicely (I assume better rewards for the more difficult levels?) people would complain that they can’t get those rewards. Instead, people need to accept that there are just some things they can’t do and do something else like the PvP components. Also, please do not get rid of the timed puzzles. We have plenty of JPs in the game that aren’t timed.
I’ll try to make this short. I like the area, it’s new, it’s fun. The puzzle, if that’s what you want to call it, feels like just a sprint. You aren’t actually solving anything, you are just let loose with about 5 other people on the same platform bumrushing the course. So while that may be some people’s thing, it’s definitely not mine.
I like being able to have time to look at something and solve it, which you don’t get the chance to do here. That’s a disappointment to me, but I’ll just hope your team can find ways other than racing to make a puzzle captivating.
From a scale of 1-10 I’d rank it about a 6. The scenery is awesome, the puzzle,or lack-there-of, is just not.
Its a misnomer. They should have called them something else besides “Jumping Puzzle” (or had different names for ones that were puzzles and ones that were more twitch based). Its obvious even in the core game, not just events, that some of them are meant to be actual puzzles while others are supposed to be reflex / timing / skill based (and some mix the two). Naming them all puzzles is… puzzling.
Reflex based jumping challenges work much better for holiday events, because figuring out an actual puzzle when you’re almost guaranteed to be in a large group is no fun. Just one person looking at a guide ruins it, and special events are always going to be full of people.
I enjoyed this puzzle. It is a bit easy. I loved that Mad King puzzle but I didn’t expect one so difficult for this event. I do hope to see more difficult puzzles in other events.
I really liked the end with the cheering gingerbread and stuff. Nice touch.
I like how I can watch others going through the puzzle if I didn’t feel like playing with the snowballs. This would have been neat for the Mad King puzzle.
I also like the snowball entertainment if I didn’t want to watch the others doing the puzzle.
Well done.
I speak for my self and no one else. Only fools believe they speak for a majority.
I’ve made it to the end of the jumping puzzle six times now. Every time, I get the loading screen, followed by a split-second view of the end room with the NPCs and treasure chest, only to be greeted by another loading screen and returned to the start before I can even move. I’m not getting the achievement or any chance to loot the chest, although all I really care about is the achievement at this point.
The same issue seems to happen when I die in the puzzle: Loading screen, followed by an instant in the puzzle where I died, then another loading screen and I’m back at the start.
This happened to me in the Mad King’s Clock Tower puzzle too, it was unacceptable then, and it’s unacceptable now.
I feel I should point out that every time it happens, I’ve left and come back later to a (possibly) different overflow, or to my home server’s instance.
I am not disappointed, because after so much flaming (clocktower) I expecred Anet to make a jumping puzzle in baby-mode. Anet wants to make a game for anybody to reach anything without too much effort, and this is the problem for players who want a challenging game like me. I dont want to flame too much, I just dont like the trend Anet is going..
I enjoyed it after I stopped getting sent back to the waiting area while not missing a jump yet. Some other people in my guild had the random teleport out bug happen to them as well.
I wish there was a timer so if you reach the end in a certain timeslot, you get X reward. If you reach the end in a later time slot, you get Y reward. I can see how this jumping puzzle would be hard for some older people that don’t have the First Person Shooter reflexes all of us kids and young adults have these days. Having to progress super fast in a quick jumping game isn’t going to be appreciated by 100% of your player base and I feel that it can be brought closer to 100% with a ticking timer instead of a forced time window.
Commander Rañger Dañger
Leader of Cryptic Gaze[iSpy]
Evermoor Alliance (iSpy, JAWA, WAR) – Dragonbrand
I liked it. It was just just hard enough to be challenging and not so hard as to induce mouse-throwing frustration.
The three different paths and life degen were brilliant. And I liked the pacing.
The wait before attempts didn’t bother me so much. The time you wait is proportionate to your performance. If you keep falling on the third snow flake, you’ll have to wait a while. If you get further in to it, then the wait is short. And unlike the Lost Shores geyser puzzle and Tower, you can watch other people still going from the lobby, which helps pass the time.
All and all this one hit a nice balance for a holiday activity. I understand the want for harder content and I’m all for that in PvE. But IMHO the limited time holiday stuff should be a little more accessible than the permanent higher skill bar stuff.
One complaint is the rewards are a little lack-luster. It might be easier, but it’s not that easy. Besides the karma jug, you could get everything else it offers from the open world gifts (unless I have just had bad luck with it). The chest is already one-a-day, so I don’t see the harm in it having a chance to drop one of the items from the Wintersday Mystery Box in place of a tonic or ugly sweater.
Its a misnomer. They should have called them something else besides “Jumping Puzzle”
Other than a few times where you have to go back to get some attunement or a few where the entrance is hidden, none of the “jumping puzzles” in GW2 is particularly puzzling. They’re really more like “jumping challenges”.
This JP has literally brought stress into my real life, its a problem. I’ve become a addicted, and not in a good way.
I can’t go an hour without thinking about this puzzle. I have a real problem with jumping puzzles, I spent 20+ hours on the Mad King Clocktower, and I regret it.
The wait time is terrible, I have to wait an eternity just to try again, not good. I know that there are extreme pro’s that can take this thing by storm and rub it into everyone else’s face, but seriously Anet, think about us.
I can’t stop because I know I will always regret not finishing the puzzle. I think (timed) jumping puzzles need to be removed from holiday events. They really detriment the rest of the activities for the majority of those that try the JP.
Personally I´m fine with it, I´m just to beginner of a player to complete it yet but maybe next time then. The only problem I see in this puzzle is if some player has a moderately or completely poor internet connection so the lag combined with the timed jumping puzzle and freezing damage will make their efforts a living h***. That is not very thoughtful for those players and to them it is not good design choice. On the other hand it is the beast A.Net could come up with and lagging players are quite rare in this game so it is not a major problem. Despite that, I think they should at least try to come up with a different system that would make the puzzle harder.
The only thing that’s puzzling me, at this point, is the challenge-seekers who are soundly against difficulty levels because they don’t want people lacking their particular skill being able to enjoy part of the event.
As a few have mentioned, having difficulty settings for the puzzle: Easy, Med, Hard
The rewards don’t change, nor do the achievements, so people don’t feel pressure having to tackle the highest setting. It’s there mainly for the hardcore jumpers, that like that style.
But you get a title like “jumpmaster” for doing all the puzzles in hard mode. If one is disabled, unskilled or just has not enough time, one does not recieve the title. It’s that easy!
too easy? I spent 4-5 hours to get this done once. ended up having to scale down to 800×600 resolution so my computer wouldnt stutter mid jump, drop all settings to windows 3.2 graphics and pray i didnt have a mammoth of a charrbag hovering over me. The snowflakes fade to quickly. Going from active jumping to waiting was havoc on my body.
I run a 3.8ghz dual core (yeah overclocked wolfdale) with 1gb GPU, guessing its my wireless keyboard and mouse that cause most of the issues. Would have felt better with an xbox controller I’m betting.
But for future events, give us an explorable mode, and a timed mode on jumping puzzles. First time through you can take your time and learn the jumps, then its a race to the finish and to the prizes.
Jumping puzzle way to hard, this is my second day trying, easily tried it over 100 times. If I had 3 more seconds, less huge characters jumping, and most importantly a shorter wait time time, it wouldn’t be so bad. Seriously why do we have to wait so long, could have tried 200 times by now.
the clock tower was a great jumping puzzle that was too difficult for a holiday event. the wonderland has the perfect difficulty. took me a couple of hours to finish it, but at no point do i feel that it is undoable (unlike the clock tower, aka the tower of despair). the area is simply beautiful. and i just love being able to watch people jump from the waiting area. but it would be even better if we can watch them all the way to the end.
throughout the whole puzzle, i feel something wasn’t quite right. something was missing that exist in the clock tower. finally it hit me, it was the background music. the clock tower not only has the look, but also the music/sound effect to created an epic atmosphere. for the wonderland, the look is definitely there, but lacks the music.
thank you, anet, for listening to the players and adjusted the difficult. it’s perfect right now.
edit:
also love having 3 different paths and they merge together towards the end. if during the separate paths, we can see part of the other 2 paths, i think that would be a really cool effect. like path A goes from south to north. path B goes east to west right under it. and it’s timed so that players from path A would see players from path B going right underneath them. or eventually the 3 paths are parallel and within sight for a stretch before they separate again or merge.
Sry to sound mean but … The snowflakes melt? Never noticed that :/
Also, for ppl who are not used to crossing the snowflakes. You can train on Spekk’s Laboratory. It’s a JP in caledon forest. Time based, no waiting time. Same strategy of jumping you have to apply at the snowflakes. (The platforms are of the same size as well).
I’ve done the spekk’s one like million times already (introducing it to fellow guildies), and when I started the Wintersday JP, I already knew how to jump them with almost no breaks between snowflakes.
Why can’t we just have a personal instance? Jumping with others really doesn’t add anything to the game.
you should see me laughing when i hear a norn screeming when he didnt make the jump xD
anyway yeah the jumping puzzle was to easy. i made it on the 4th try while the clocktower was like 1-2 hours of trying if it wasnt longer.
the waiting time isnt THAT bad, especially when you can knock your friends in the head with a snowball. would be cool if they gave us slightly more stuff to do there in the waiting room.
also compared to the clocktower this reward was pretty low but than again this puzzle was more easy.
I’m not arguing!
I’m simply explaining why I’m right.
The only thing that’s puzzling me, at this point, is the challenge-seekers who are soundly against difficulty levels because they don’t want people lacking their particular skill being able to enjoy part of the event.
Not really. I’m not against it. Just don’t see the point of it.
If you create easy/hard modes for example. People will still complain that hard mode is too hard and it’s unfair they cannot get the better reward because they cannot do it.
Any aspect of fun is removed by other people being present and there being a time limit. Very disappointing this is just a frustrating mess.
The time limit they give you is actually quite generous. Out of the 200 runs farming this thing. Health draining away is a non issue.
If you’re having trouble with people jumping in your way, just hang back a little or if you’re good – over take them. This puzzle is very forgiving time wise compared to the clock tower.
Anet even made THREE. Yes. THREE starting paths so that the mob of people wouldn’t be so blobbed together to prevent seeing where you are going.
The only thing that’s puzzling me, at this point, is the challenge-seekers who are soundly against difficulty levels because they don’t want people lacking their particular skill being able to enjoy part of the event.
Not really. I’m not against it. Just don’t see the point of it.
If you create easy/hard modes for example. People will still complain that hard mode is too hard and it’s unfair they cannot get the better reward because they cannot do it.
^ Give’em an inch and they’ll take a mile. I agree wholeheartedly with Azure and honestly, this is just the beginning of the “Silver Platter Crusade” in GW2. You guys have won in numerous other MMO arenas, I pray you meet some reality checking resistance from ANet.
The only thing that’s puzzling me, at this point, is the challenge-seekers who are soundly against difficulty levels because they don’t want people lacking their particular skill being able to enjoy part of the event.
Not really. I’m not against it. Just don’t see the point of it.
If you create easy/hard modes for example. People will still complain that hard mode is too hard and it’s unfair they cannot get the better reward because they cannot do it.
Couldn’t agree more. And this is why this community and game starts to annoy me. I never saw a blind guy going to watch a movie and complaining that he can’t see it.
If you wanna be a hardcore gamer, do something for it. If you are a causal gamer, stop aiming for ALL the achievements and rewards!!!
Any aspect of fun is removed by other people being present and there being a time limit. Very disappointing this is just a frustrating mess.
The time limit they give you is actually quite generous. Out of the 200 runs farming this thing. Health draining away is a non issue.
If you’re having trouble with people jumping in your way, just hang back a little or if you’re good – over take them. This puzzle is very forgiving time wise compared to the clock tower.
Anet even made THREE. Yes. THREE starting paths so that the mob of people wouldn’t be so blobbed together to prevent seeing where you are going.
As you can, people being in your way is a non issue as demonstrated in the video.
The Clocktower was even worse I agree, but the fact is (after watching your video) most people are not as good as jumping as you. I need to start immediately as 90% of the time I’m caught by the snowflakes beforehand and the two times ive made it to the presents the first row has fallen as I have jumped at it. For me the time limit is insanely tight I need to stop and plan jumps.
Adding the time limit and having us wait around for everyone else to win or fail was a stupid idea at the Helloween event and on a jumping puzzle like this (thats MUCH longer) it’s even more ridiculous. I can’t credit them for thinking any of the implementation of this puzzle was actually good. Because it isn’t.
Not that I missed much though, a couple of snowflakes and some karma. Whoopee.