Guild Wars 2

Am I the only one who is having real hard time hearing dialogue? Particularly in the story instance at the start but also in the open world.

I noticed it has to do with your Camera orientation, the way it quiets “ambient” dialogue depending on it seems strangely aggressive on this map. For example, in the starting bit at the airship despite never touching the camera at all I was unable to hear the player dialog on the deck.

They have been doing this kind of adaptive dialog volume depending on Camera since HoT, and I get what they are going for… it is neat when it works the way you’d expect it to. However, when it doesn’t you are missing out on lot of detail (particularly for open world ambient dialogue).

LW3 is not inside HoT, all living story episodes have to be bought through the gem store (or as an addon when checking out while buying the expansion, at least through the website).

When you buy the expansion read carefully what your options are… of course buying LW2 and LW3 after the fact through the gem store allows the use of the currency exchange down the line. On the other hand bundling LW with the expansion purchase may give you a better price.

I would check for you but the page where you can add additional bundles to your expansion purchase through the website is not easily accessible (since I already bought my copy). From memory one of the LW bundles was 16€ for me, I already have all of the episodes unlocked so don’t remember which episodes that contains, but if you have none of the episodes unlocked at all the bundle bought directly with real money when buying the expansion may indeed be cheaper.

Ardid.7203:

So like a built in Speed Boost mushroom? That’s awful, it takes the opportunity cost off designing any build around exploration vs designing it around combat. Mounts will be mandatory now, and build diversity will become even narrower than before.

Mounts will not affect builds though, as they are not a combat tool… sure the engage skill is there, but again having it does not take anything away from your character build.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Hmm… are staff members ineligible?

I would say no, since he said even existing partners can enter if I recall correctly.

So, I would say it is up to how you feel about it… do you think being a staff member gives you an unfair advantage. I personally don’t, because it is not like you can make a video with something that ArenaNet hasn’t officially talked about yet (since I would think that would get you in trouble).

Edit: I mean, if a concept artist for ArenaNet would enter with a video containing their concept art for the game that might be bit of a grey area, but even then so long as it doesn’t contain pieces they made for work I think it should be fine. Just my opinion though.

You could always ask the man himself, I would think you can get hold of WP easily enough considering he is a partner and all.

TheQuickFox.3826:

I wonder what causes the delay. Normally my gems arrive almost instantly after payment…

Thinking about it after the fact it probably is an intentional staggered distribution… they probably expect a larger than average influx of gems bought through the ultimate edition, so to lessen the impact that will have on the economy (through the exchange) a staggered distribution makes sense.

It very likely at least is not because of technical reasons since all the other items are delivered nearly instantly after adding the key.

nottsgman.8206:

gems, as it states on the purchase page, can take 72 hours to be added to your account

That must have been some pretty fine print somewhere because I don’t recall seeing it. I thought there was a note about 24 hours for all items, not something specific for gems.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Ruthenium Panther.8679:

Bought ultimate, everything is ok. Waiting for gems.

Awesome! Thanks for your support.

I didn’t get any gems either… is the delay supposed to be there, already got everything else though. Not sure what I will do with the two level 80 boosts though (they stacked, hopefully this doesn’t break anything).

I think I used my HoT boost already but I might recall incorrectly, as I only remember messing with the trial at one point but do not know if I committed to it or not.

Pre-purchased a copy of PoF few hours ago, got all other items just fine, however, the gems part of the ultimate edition did not show up on my account at all.

I assume they should have, since I already got everything else.

Urejt.5648:

Evan Lesh.3295:

Due to technical limitations, we will likely never be able to add a delayed observer mode to Gw2.

time to talk to the boss and get permission to convert gw2 from dx8 to dx11. Blizzard did it with diablo 3 very easily, i think u can do it too.

First of all GW2 is dx9, and second… directx is graphics API. Even though I know basically nothing about the GW2 engine. The fact is that the game being dx9 or any other version should have zero bearing to whether it is feasible to add delayed observer mode or not.

If I had to guess it has to do with the networking code or other back end systems. If the renderer in use has any bearing when it comes to a hypothetical feature such as this being impossible it could only be because something that absolutely shouldn’t be tied to client side rendering is for whatever reason tied to it.

While it is possible that what you suggest could enable this feature, if it were to happen it would be by pure happenstance alone. I find it amusing how many times when technical limitations are brought up this always comes up even with issues that are extremely unlikely to be at all related to what DirectX pertains to.

Evan Lesh.3295:

We also think automated tournaments would be neat. For viewership, we would have to re-implement the authorized shoutcaster program to allow certain people to stream the tournaments.

I mean the authorized shoutcaster thing is cool, but wouldn’t it be better to actually add a global delay to the spectator mode.

For example, if player A enters a match as a spectator, have the match start go on for 3-5 minutes before they get given access to the spectator mode. Then have the AI repeat all the actions from the X minute queue/cache based on the data the server was already sent once.

I am not saying it would be easy, however, if you think about both the incoming network data for the match and the out going responses can in theory be cached and repeated on a delay to any client that is just an observer (ie. spectator).

I mean the authorized shoutcaster thing is good, but if you think about the 1:1 live spectating only has added value in LAN style events where the teams can be seen playing the game in real time. In those settings any delay is detrimental but in most others it is basically required if you want to have easy access to shoutcasting without the problems that come with streaming a live match.

I guess it comes down to how you could justify the implementation and upkeep cost of such an addition.

Sorry if someone has already posted this over here (working forum search would be nice).

Anyways, as it turns out F2P accounts can make revenant, although only if its your very first character.

“Revenant” link: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/5w2mb2/psa_creating_a_free_to_play_account_right_now/de6z9gt/

What I am most interested in would be how long has this bug gone under the radar and how on earth does something like this slip past QA (also, why is the very first character created special in some way?).

Edit: I guess this gets around the WvW level 60 restriction (or rather lowers it to effectively level 10).

Evan Lesh.3295:

We are tracking these bugs.

I am genuinely curious as to how this did happen. I mean there hasn’t been division in PvP and non-PvP gear in ages. Surely by now adding ascended armor, regardless of where it is added, be the exact same process.

Just seems like a real strange one, of course the answer could be as mundane as someone who doesn’t usually add these items did it this time. So, perhaps the better question would be why is it possible for Ascended armor to not have infusion slots in the first place??

Evan Lesh.3295:

New about season 5 is coming very Soon™!

Here I am trying to decide whether you forgot an entire word or just a letter, but waiting for both news and new info all the same :P.

Chaba.5410:

Gunner Morton.8340:

Almost nobody is using repair hammers yet the result is 50 / 50? Its either rigged or PvE players are voting on kitten they have no knowledge of, skewing the result in the process.

It’s WvW players reacting in a fearful way to anything related with the word “siege”.

Pretty much yes, the poll was a forgone conclusion before it began… as far as I am concerned and the same is true for the poll about the next beta item. There is no way that either will realistically reach 75% supermajority and to tell the truth ArenaNet should already know that.

If anything they have their data from the beta, they should have just used that and made a decision, game designers as they are, as opposed to waste time on a poll whose result most people could predict.

Thelgar.7214:

Tier 1 is all that matters and is the source of all knowledge, fun, friendliness and light.

But… I prefer more of the little grumpy, less knowledgeable people who are not that friendly. I also prefer darkness over light.

This is clearly wrongful discrimination on the part of all who claim to be T1.

drkn.3429:

You need to see this episode exactly as that: an introduction to a new storyline, purposely ending with such cliffhangers.

The only problem is that cliffhangers are sort of the curse of Living Story. I don’t mind this one, if the next episode doesn’t make it a habit again like it was for S2.

For S2 it wasn’t so bad because the cadence, despite some breaks was faster… however, with the 8-12 weeks cadence, having almost one cliffhanger per episode is not going to work at all.

It is a great update and the story is good. However, thinking that this is it for 8-12 weeks does not make me overly optimistic. Well more time to play my backlog of games.

Anyways, the map is fantastic… but there are a few odd things with it. Namely how the access to the map is handled from the rest of the world. Also, some of the mechanics raise questions (the white mantle throwing rocks outside of render range is one and the flying abilities not being tied to the mastery system is another, when the latter seems like such a perfect fit for that system).

The curse of cliffhangers seems to continue to plague living story, unfortunately now it is set to stay a cliffhanger for a lot longer than it used to be.

Zok.4956:

I think the new map give much more exp that HoT.

That is sort of true, the primary reason for this is that the map is so much more compact and extremely easy to get around in (if you have maxed gliding). It is likely that people coming into the map with nothing but basic masteries will not as easily have the same experience.

In terms of the actual sources of XP, I’d wager the only unique and substantially different source of XP on the map is the “orbs” you can eventually collect while flying. The rest should be on par with other maps, only less reliant on a meta events and way more compact.

However, the key is if, and how fast, you can navigate the map or not. Then there is the 30% map specific buff, but that only enters in play once you have surplus map currency (ie. not for a while).

Edit: forgot the map bonus pamflets… those add a bit too, but honestly not that much when dealing with higher tier masteries.

Slowpokeking.8720:

You have to do it 3 times and if you go too close, it knocks u off. If you go too far, the bloodstone effect will end.

The trick here is that you have to be quick… there is a difference in how the skill, let’s call it bloodstone beam (since it doesn’t really have a specific name), reacts if you go near a bloodstone the counter magic special skill activates — now if you do not activate the skill and move away the beam connecting you to the bloodstone will easily break, however, if you immediately activate the counter magic you can move a lot more freely, and a lot further away, without the beam breaking.

Of course, the trick is when you activate the counter magic the bloodstone shard will start to take damage so you have to be really quick since you have a small window of time where you have the opportunity to both move freely and use the beam.

Unfortunately, and this is a small fault on the part of the designers, this key difference in how the beam operates never necessarily becomes clear to the player as long as there is only one blood stone to work with (ie. the Justicar encounter), it becomes obvious in the final encounter though, as you realize the beam no longer tethers,or breaks, to the other bloodstones once you have activated the skill pretty quickly.

Valky.2574:

I thought if you bought HOT you got it for free

You do, if you log in during each episodes “release window” which means the time in between episodes when each episode is the most current one out. This is identical to how S2 worked.

Although, you do not need to own HoT to unlock these episodes by logging in during their release window, you do need HoT to play the episodes though. This is different from S2 obviously. However, the interesting bit is that you could be playing on a free account and unlock these episodes for free (during their release window), then if you ever buy HoT you will immediately have access to these episodes for now extra cost (I believe ANet referred to this as “banking” the episode).

Sadly I missed the reddit AMA (busy playing or trying to play while it was going on).

However, having familiarized myself with this new map I had a few burning questions that just do not make sense to me right now. Before I get into it, I’ll say though that the map itself left a generally positive feeling, although my poor computer is kind of suffering because of everything going on in this map.

So, onto the questions…

1. Aerial Combat
This one should be easy enough, is this going to be a one off thing, or is this a test for potentially doing something vaguely similar on other new (or old?) maps? Not like combat with the glider is entirely new, but this is the first time we got an implementation that is less situational and more of a permanent fixture.

2. Mastery Integration
First of all, will the new mastery ability added in this episode have a use outside of story context? Second, assuming the new mastery line will expand in the future will it be more akin to say the Gliding mastery line vs the current Raid mastery line (ie. useful in multiple maps vs useful only when doing the story/very specific slice of content).

And last but certainly not least, why are the Aerial combat skills not a mastery line? This seems like such a perfect fit for its own Aerial combat mastery line. In comparison the one mastery that was added seems like something that shouldn’t be a mastery at all, but just a contextual ability specific to the relevant story instances.

forum bug

/15 charrs dancing on the table

Jeknar.6184:

And most of the time, if you ever breach a wall when players are inside, they just wp without even trying to make a last stand.

So, people should fight when the situation has become one that they know they will loose… just to be polite. I think not. Also, as for defenders using structures and siege etc. why wouldn’t they make the best use of tools given to them regardless of numbers.

You are living in some strange world if you think most people would opt for a tactic that has a higher risk of loss just so they give their opponent a fair match. No one wants to run back from the waypoint if they can avoid it.

Nuzt.7894:

Take away the AoE cap for a day.

Not sure if you are serious, this topic seems to generally be filled with trolls.

In case you are, the AoE cap is not a gameplay limitation but a technical limitation, say they do what you ask… it is highly likely that day no-one could play WvW because the servers would constantly crash or those who do manage to get in would be experiencing a slide show.

On a serious note, bringing back the orbs for ABL as a test is really something I’d like for them to try.

Korgov.7645:

Crise.9401:

There is also the fact that the community basically voted to prioritize the most demanding stuff on the scoring changes list. They will take a while, so in the mean time they don’t have much to show for those… better this than dead air, no?

I do not want to suffer from bad features just because they are easy to make.

The bit you chose to quote was referring to having polls about minor changes in the interim in general. Whether this specific change is good or bad, since we are given the option to do so I choose to not decide it is bad outright without at least trying it if the developers believe it is worth the consideration.

You assume it is bad, and you may be correct… however, it doesn’t have to be bad… you have no way to prove that it will be bad for certain no more than I can say that it won’t be bad at this point. Without seeing how it actually plays out we can only speculate one way or another.

morrolan.9608:

Actually no, dead air would be better.

We will just have to agree to disagree on that… four years in and only now they realize the only way to get anything through in WvW is to throw it on live and see what happens. The PvP community in GW2 is so averse to changes that it is this only way for any progress to happen.

Either way I would rather see developers actively pushing for any change, good or bad, than not see any activity at all… the fact is we don\t know what is good or bad before we have played with the stuff.

This topic is a prime example of that, people assume cannons on the field would be identical to cannons on the walls (which is reasonable assumption, given nothing else has been said), however, cannons on walls have been designed to be static siege, ergo their numbers reflect that… a cannon on the field would likely be different, and even if it isn’t right now in their design/implementation it has the possibility to be.

Just to point out, we are not game designers… before you say that they have lost it you should for a moment consider that these people have been at it for a while and they do this for a living… they have no incentive to poll the community on changes that they believe will be bad for the game type. Now, if what they believe WvW is diverges from what the community believes it is or what it should be is a different matter entirely.

Edit: besides we knew this poll was coming from Tyler’s post way back, so lets not act like this poll existing is somehow news for people who have actually kept up with the forums.

The issue of “lag” is game wide in the sense that any real fixes to address it (other than changing WvW specific spawns etc. which they already did) is in areas of the game that are global even if the issue primarily manifests in WvW due to the nature of how it is played.

The gist of this being, what you are asking for WvW team to fix is not something they would ever be responsible in fixing in the first place. The fix, if it exists at all, is some fairly low level backend work not something a team consisting most likely of game designers and content/gameplay programmers would address.

DoctorWunderbar.5037:

Can I ask what is the thought process behind adding these improvements?

Why is the team choosing to focus on implementing/improving siege instead of other aspects of the maps / balance / core issues to the game mode? Are they handled by other teams?

What they have said for now is, that these are low effort changes that they want to try out now that they have the green light to do so in a realistic environment (that is the only realistic WvW setting ie. the live game). As it turns out the repair hammers were basically almost done content for the most part that got shelved because they didn’t have real means to test it at the time, now they do.

There is also the fact that the community basically voted to prioritize the most demanding stuff on the scoring changes list. They will take a while, so in the mean time they don’t have much to show for those… better this than dead air, no?

Wasn’t this issue already addressed in a very definitive way by ArenaNet, as in this is how it will be going forward deal with it pretty much.

I am generally for any item on a trial basis… if he devs believe it is worth the trouble. My basis for this assessment is basically the fact that the developers are designing games for a living and they know what this actually involves and what it doesn’t.

However, there is a certain problem I think that a dev should address… if this comes in as a trial, does it overlap with the repair hammer trial. Just saying, too many unknown variables are only going to reinforce the idea that these changes don’t work. The playerbase already has issues adapting so introducing too many unknown variables should be avoided or they will cannibalize each other. That having been said, the trials should probably overlap for part of the time if possible, since in the end they could theory have to exist side by side.

Personally, I don’t subscribe to this siege is bad for WvW mindset going around, when siege is what makes the game mode what it is (ie. something more than a huge capture point map), having said that everything in moderation is good mantra to follow.

Edit: although, I believe I speak for everyone in that some sort of “status report” on the scoring changes would be good.. because no matter how much the poll says that is still the primary focus, right now there is no evidence of that and it creates the illusion that you are focusing on “the unimportant stuff” when in fact you might not be.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

My feeling: obviously, this will change things. Whether it changes things for the worse, better, or makes little difference will depend partly on whether people adapt or whine about not wanting to adapt.

My gut says, people will mostly whine about not wanting to adapt. When it comes to WvW and PvP this community has bit of an issue with change in general as far as I am concerned.

Considering, as it turns out that the repair hammers were basically done… I see no harm in trying them personally. That said, I doubt they will stay around… because of above. Granted Anet is sort of to blame for the community responding badly to change.

I don’t see why we can’t try this out… doesn’t seem like a terrible complicated item to create, as the poll also implies. So whatever happens with it, not much of anything is wasted either way.

Voting yes for now…

You don’t put a cow that still produces plenty of milk up for slaughter as it were. GW2 still has enough life in it left that GW3, if it ever happens, is likely not even talked about.

Well, they have basically said that the weapons were created for the betas as Randulf’s linked post quotes. So it is likely that only the few that revenants used by default on those betas were ever created… and then as was pointed out they lost them.

I guess it is also worthwhile to point out that even if they had found them there is little reason to push such an incomplete weapon set into the game… and considering them putting them on the gem store (which would likely be the easiest option for them, as well as the quickest way to get the set finished) is not an option, due to it being a very bad PR choice.

It might be that it is simply something waiting in the pipeline for appropriate content to exist that it can be hooked into (as obviously they were not designed to be part of HoT, sadly).

Mike Z, seeing as the quote is from him, also happens to be the person spearheading expac two development at this time. So it might be we will only hear about these weapons once they announce said expansion if they have made plans for them to come out with that expansion. Same applies to if they plan to throw them up with LS3, seeing as that is still not talked about publicly.

Vegeta.2563:

Are these tests being run Live, or something being pushed out in the next Patch?

Since they are testing based on volume/frequency of requests, and seeing as the whole trading post is basically a set of web pages, they don’t need a patch to do this sort of testing… and not doing it live would be kind of pointless due to the lack of realistic server load.

Based on those facts and her choice on wording… I believe these tests can be ran, or they could already be ongoing, at any time. It is more than likely tweaking the backend web servers/services and/or their configuration, letting it run for a while and adjusting based on what they see… repeat until they reach a point where they are happy with it.

She is not promising the error message will go away, just that it should be less frequent ergo this likely isn’t some huge systemic change requiring massive changes though. It could even be something as simple as the servers the trading post is running on having had some hardware changes and this is them adjusting the configuration to get the most out of those changes.

Korgov.7645:

But all that was discussed in that thread. Implementing everything on the list without considering the negative effects would destroy WvW as we know it.

WvW as we know it isn’t doing so well right now as far as I can tell… destroying and rebuilding it sounds almost enticing. There is two sides to every coin, you say PvE has the best rewards… yes that is true, unfortunately a Skritt is very close analog to your typical MMO player.

I am only saying there are probably plenty of people who wouldn’t mind getting involved in WvW if it was perceived as being worth the time invested. As for karma train argument, it is upto the mechanics to not let players abuse the mechanics like that if that indeed is not considered the intended gameplay.

Korgov.7645:

As soon as ANet PvE developers notice that their zones become deserter they will crank up rewards there. And PvE players will gravitate out of WvW again.

That is a rather cynical way of thinking… even if you are right that doesn’t change the fact that you are basically saying no to better rewards, because it might bring in new players, which is totally idiotic.

The fact remains that server pride is pointless… there is no reason to try and win a matchup as a whole. Sure, you can enjoy the gameplay and even get something out of winning individual skirmishes and battles, but there is literally nothing that drives you to win a matchup. There is simply no personal or server wide incentives in place that make the win matter whatsoever.

Improved rewards can be seen as a means to incentivize people to get out of their comfort zone, what happens after that is irrelevant to the rewards. At that point is up to the game play to be engaging enough to make people to want to stick around.

Korgov.7645:

• Rewards could promote server stacking and influx of PvE players

Not saying I entirely disagree with this, to be frank most of the concerns you listed are entirely valid (as is the possibility of server stacking for rewards), however, you are assuming an influx of PvE players would be bad enough to think of it as a reason to not improve WvW rewards.

Sure, it might have some adverse effect for a time, but considering how badly we need people I don’t think getting new people in there for any reason is inherently bad idea. It is only potentially problematic if none of those players have any intention of actually playing WvW ever which I find highly unlikely… some people just need reasons to play that are not as abstract as the reasons WvW offers right now. Currently there is literally no reason to attempt to win matchups other than server ranking and “pride” after all.

Deniara Devious.3948:

I wish Arenanet would show us metrics, how many players on each server and each map as each tick. This would give us a lot of food for thought!

Wouldn’t we all, unfortunately that is pretty sure thing to not happen, there is something of an unwritten rule about ArenaNet (and more or less gaming companies in general, particularly when it comes to MMO’s) to not release absolute statistics.

The exception to this rule is only when those numbers are impressive enough to be considered a positive marketing tool. From PR point of view relative statistics and vague statements are a safer bet.

McKenna Berdrow.2759:

It will not be tonight, or next Tuesday, but sometime after that.

I can’t give you an exact day yet, since there are still some technical changes that need to happen before we can run different Borderlands at the same time, but I will let everyone know once we know for sure it is ready to go out.

Will bloodlust be added to Desert borderlands to have parity with the two Alpine maps… the mid section of the map is currently basically unused, is it not?

Obviously I am not asking to copy paste the terrain to desert, which would probably take a while and not be consistent with the style of the rest of the map, but rather just added the capture points to the current desert mid section in some configuration.

kroter.1326:

1. Skill lag
2. FPS drops and horrible optimization overall

But yeah, that’s not happening.

It is not happening, as a WvW poll, because both of those are issues with game wide systems. Any changes to them happen on the backend and impact the entire game. Even if they manifest and are most visible in WvW.

And… the poll has been closed, mixed borderlands it will be.

Jim Hunter.6821:

No the difference is there are very few spots where you hit a cliff that is a dead end. Every cliffside in alpine has spots where you can drop down on ledges and make your way to the ground. They are still very dangerous to use in combat but they are way better than all the dead ends you hit in the dbl.

I wasn’t really arguing which is better or worse, just pointing it out that the other map had ca. 3-4 years while desert had less than a year. Objectively it can be said that desert had its fair share of problems but so did Alpine when it was brand spanking new (Quaggans and Orbs come to mind off the top of my head, although I think the latter would have been salvageable as an interesting mechanic were it given a chance).

The fact is experience can remedy a lot of problems, is it a solution to those problems… no but it is a fact that once you know the map the topography stops being your enemy and becomes your friend (don’t take this too literally, well aware that desert had issues with some Revenant skills for example). The fact that dead ends exists is not a problem in itself, the problem is people do not know the map to be able to avoid them.

Raf.1078:

And just like now? Where a lot of the adherents of the DBL have stepped back and are not playing.

I don’t know how true that statement is in general, however, I can tell you straight that after playing 3 years and then some on on the alpine map I have no desire to zone into it again in the foreseeable future. When it came back I went in there for like 10 minutes and decided to call it quits.

People complain about DBL terrain but ABL is not perfect in that regard either, the kittening cliffs are completely pointless (the only difference is that the route to traverse them quickly is so well known that people don’t even register them until someone fears them to their death when their skills are on cooldown). Alpine is better than desert probably overall, however, that doesn’t change the fact that we have played it to death.

Yes, before HoT release I wasn’t playing that much of WvW at all for quite a while (other than to occasionally restock on badges or make use of discounted prices), the new map was a reason to get interested in it again for me… for the time being that map is gone though.

Xillllix.3485:

These polls are just meant to slow down the release of the overhaul. Mark my word: when the overhaul is ready they’ll hold on it and launch it with the next expansion.

Sadly this could very well come to pass… it is not like we are getting another map with the expansion so soon after the whole DBL debacle. If not new maps then what will they add to incentive WvW players to buy the expansion exactly? (elite specs don’t count they fall in the general column although for many that might be enough, because power creep).

Teon.5168:

misterman.1530:

Hexinx.1872:

Also I doubt we would ever get a new map if DBL was shot down.

So…you believe Anet would virtually stomp their feet, frown, and take their ball and go home if we voted down the DBL?

We already had another poll on that, and people voted almost 2-1 to keep dbls, so that’s a moot point anymore.

This… the map will come back, it is only a matter how at this point. Granted, I would guess is simultaneous does not happen there will be a segment of unhappy people who voted to keep DBL hoping specifically for simultaneous borderlands setup.

But if that happens, then there is no fault in anyone but people who took that risk… however, at the end of the day that is just how the cookie crumbled if we end up in that situation. I among several others probably, cast their votes more based on potential than immediate impact. Of course this is just me speculating though.

If there are any significant changes that they are planning… they will likely be deployed as part of the next quarterly big patch and not sooner. There is no reason to announce major changes to a map that has not re-entered play yet.

This probably also has to do with QA, I assume anything that is part of a release notes for a build has gone through QA pass by the time that build goes out. So by not finalizing the changes there is no pressure on QA from content that is not playable at the moment.

Last, but certainly not least… what they have said on the subject of DBL changes is that for the time being their philosophy is smaller changes with big impact. This is also in line with the assumption that they probably would want to have a poll about a major map overhaul, if they keep following their current mantra about polls, and this is not likely before majority of the scoring changes have been implemented or are well underway most likely.

Jeknar.6184:

Anet should care about the players still remaining, not the ones long gone. Mentioning that people who quit would make a difference in the pool result is moot point since these people don’t even play the game anymore.

They basically flat out said as much… ie. that people that no longer play the game should not have a say in what happens to it.

Forum bug… begone.