Guild Wars 2

It’s been said already, but I’m posting again to reiterate because I think this would lead to a large improvement and streamlining of game systems. I understand this takes more work but I feel like this is worth it:

Blood Rubies & Petrified Wood – along with future (and possibly more at present) map “super currencies” – should be placed in the wallet if possible, and vendors should sell a salvageable or simply clickable wad of Unbound Magic to restore that functionality to the currency.

By implementing the system this way, it unifies the concepts of design and provides groundwork for the implementation of future content. Rather than having some currencies go to the wallet, some go to the bank, and some do neither, they can all go to the wallet and players will have an easier time figuring out what to do with the new thing they just got. The consistency between releases will be one of the biggest benefits, as unified concepts help players more easily digest what’s happening when being thrown into a pile of new stuff. It’s building groundwork for the future and simplifying the present, so as long as the resources are there, I really suggest looking into it as an option.

At some point, when dev time and resources are available, the Wallet can get a much needed future-proofing upgrade of Tabs to sort currencies (General, Dungeons, Current Events, Heart of Thorns, Xpac 2, etc), but for now, the BEST solution is to just get them in the wallet and add the item to the vendors.

So let’s just think about how to compromise on the speed situation…

Generally Guardian needs to run Staff or Shouts to keep speed buffs up, but that makes it hard to do a “full trapper” DH build and keep the speed going.

Perhaps – if a trait could be moved or merged – you could have a trait which buffs speed while traps are down? Something like:

Trapper’s Retreat: Movement speed increased by 5% for each trap that has been set.

I’m not sure that fits with the “spirit” of the Guardian in the way it would be used in open world PvE, though…any thoughts or fixes to this idea?

Tomes are a cool idea but are really lacking in build support. These elites make a lot more sense, and sound strong enough to actually consider over Renewed Focus (which, outside of niche applications, Tomes never were).

Full Light of Deliverance on active seems like it might be pretty overpowered, and doesn’t this sort of clash with the OTHER healing signet we have? What if it didn’t affect the user as a heal, but affected allies – something like “full/strong heal on nearby allies, grants (some kind of boon) per ally affected to user” or something.

The shout is also useable as is, but I liked the burning aspect of Tome of Wrath (wrath always equates to Burn in my mind), so maybe allies affected get the Courage burn as well or something for the next X hits? You could coordinate with allies for huge spikes of damage if you all get to stack burns up with quickness – that feels REALLY wrathful!

Shade Madrigal.1729:

DaG.5103:

1. I believe guards are at the appropriate strength level. If guards were harder to kill, it would further discourage PvP on defense. Guards should be soloable, which forces players to devote some time to defending to ensure they don’t get an easy path cleared for heros and DBs. This also encourages summoning Archers, because when players are defending their guards, it’s more advantageous to spend supply pushing NPCs that can help overwhelm them rather than just doing DB spam.

I definitely agree that guards should always remain soloable, but I think that term could be made a little more demanding.

The reason I’d like to see that is 2 fold:
1) I’d really like the Archers to feel as threatening as the doorbreakers – something that needs to be kept away, cc’d, dps’d, treb’d away from your guards, just like the doorbreakers are for doors.

In a lot of cases, it felt like they were only ever a threat to your guards if you left your side completely undefended or they had a squadron of ’em and your team completely failed with the treb. Upping the armor of defensive NPCs relative to the player -a little (emphasis: not a lot) – and upping the damage the archers do to the NPCs might make them feel a little more threatening and something that needs to be controlled/summoned.

Perhaps having the archers strongly prefer to attack the NPCs over doing negligible damage to players would have the same effect (I may just be underestimating their damage potential because they always seemed to be plinking away uselessly at a player). Make them more mission-focused like those good ol’ kamikaze doorbreakers.

2) In a lot of our matches the enemy guards between the inner and outer gates were just collateral damage of us pushing a wave of doorbreakers (ignoring any mention of the rock-paper-scissor archers) to the next gate. They weren’t necessarily an obstacle in themselves. They either fall during the push or could be bursted down by a zerk while we prepared for another push with doorbreakers.

Sure, that sounds reasonable. I have heard some people say that zerging with archers can really build up pressure on defending players, but I didn’t have enough time to test it myself. But upping defense and archer damage seems like it might help find a sweeter spot for encouraging both spawns while still keeping the defending team on their toes.

Continued…

5. Despite what others are claiming, I don’t think death penalties need to be increased as time goes by or in general (though if the time limit is removed, SOMETHING should be implemented to cause the “blinds to raise” as the game goes on to push it to an ending. But as it is, once a push makes it into your Lord’s room, it can be difficult to keep the defense up already. If it takes too long to res at that point, it will cause players to defend more conservatively OR counter-rush instead, which is less exciting to watch and creates less of the “insane play” moments that I think everybody wants to see in this game mode.

6. Regarding channeling interruption – I think this is a critical component of the mode and should not be changed. Heroes should actually be able to be channeled, and with the size of the map, if damage interrupted the channel, they wouldn’t be seen as often. The channel points already do a good job of encouraging PvP, but the fact that players need to build and play with CC in mind for these points adds a critical strategic element that I would be sad to see gone. If players are seeing unstoppable channels due to Stability stacking too high, there are two options that don’t involve changing the game type – either add more or play with more boon stripping, or nerf some of the key stability skills to be more manageable and promote more counterplay.

7. For those who weren’t seeing much Trebuchet use, it’s likely because the teams were playing reasonably offensively. Our games saw our defending warrior man the treb when the opposing team focused too much on Supply rather than escorting the NPCs/offense. The Trebuchet exists to counter the “heavy supply” strategy. One trebuchet shot can effectively counter several player’s time spent running supply, so a team that devotes to spamming NPCs needs to also devote time to running offense. The trebuchet likely won’t see too much use outside of that and sometimes swinging teamfights in mid, and in my opinion, that’s okay. It’s still an important check to force players to disperse and play roles.

8. My last point – 5v5 seems to work very well. There are more roles where players are needed than there are players, and that’s a GOOD thing. As some have said, upping the player count will likely lead to balls of players zerging because all the roles will be effectively covered already. With 5 players and 6+ things to focus on, players are forced to make critical decisions about where to play their character, and more importantly, players can effectively counterplay the opposing team by finding where they are NOT devoting enough time and taking advantage of that. That’s definitely a skill based decision and further promotes this mode’s focus on team vs team rather than strictly player vs player, which I think is a good niche for this mode to fill.

That’s about what I’ve got – I think there’s some really fantastic design here, and just a couple of tweaks (time extension or no timer + raising stakes as game progresses, exclusive queue, tutorial mode) should really be looked at to make this mode the best it can be.

Had to add my thoughts here after playing yesterday – hope this helps!

I played 8-10 games yesterday, queuing up with varying numbers of players. I didn’t solo queue any (honestly, I was afraid to – communication seemed way too important and I figured we would be at a significant disadvantage without it). I queued with teams of 2-4 guildies including myself, so we always had at least 1 random person on our team. Keep in mind that my experience involves playing with decent players and using voice communication in all games, though always with 1-3 people out of the loop.

Overall, I absolutely love the game type. I didn’t want to stop playing!

The biggest thing that the game type currently does right is it feels like you are making distinct, describable, real contributions to the team. We had started to develop some decent strategies as we played – I had one guildie (Hambow War) who liked to defend, so he got to the gate right away and protected those guards as well as he could, which is critical to stopping the early gate rush and doorbreaker spam. Meanwhile, myself (Medi guard) and a guildie (Power Necro) rushed their gate to remove the initial guards. I could solo them usually, but if their team did defense early, I needed backup to ensure removing the guards. This allows our early DB rush to get through, but as we played we started to switch from 5 DBs to 3-4 DBs and 1-2 Archers, because typically you can’t remove the gate and kill all guards before they snipe the DBs.

The rest of the team roamed and fought over supply early on, though the players we couldn’t communicate as well with kinda did whatever. This was decently effective, but a team that devoted more to supply could control it pretty well. Once we removed the 6 inner guards, a hero or DBs could take down the inner gate and we spent time roaming to steal channels to cause that.

So here are some of my thoughts, trying specifically to point out my own counter points to some of the statements others have made (nothing directed at anyone in particular, though):

1. I believe guards are at the appropriate strength level. If guards were harder to kill, it would further discourage PvP on defense. Guards should be soloable, which forces players to devote some time to defending to ensure they don’t get an easy path cleared for heros and DBs. This also encourages summoning Archers, because when players are defending their guards, it’s more advantageous to spend supply pushing NPCs that can help overwhelm them rather than just doing DB spam.

2. Likewise, I feel that Heroes are appropriately powered as well. Heroes should require some amount of protection. Again, if Heroes are too difficult to kill, players will find greater benefit in simply counter-rushing and we’ll get less offensive/defensive play, which is where a lot of the fun PvP is. Based on what we’ve experienced, Heroes already do a good job of swinging games and players are encouraged to channel them. I think they are in the right place as it is, and buffs to them could easily backfire and encourage offensive zerging to beat the clock instead of actively defending against them.

3. I’m in agreement that the point system might not be the best way to determine the game end after 15 minutes. The Point system feels like a very anti-climactic way to end the game. That said, I like the visual representation of how much work your team is putting in, so I wouldn’t necessarily remove it. I would consider doing what has been suggested above – changing the game to being 20 or 25 minutes long, or simply removing the time limit entirely. If Stronghold is moved to its own queue, there is no need to have a time limit on the game anymore. As I understand it, the primary reason it has a 15 minute limit is to ensure that players who queue up for random PvP games can expect to spend no more than 15 minutes in game to keep things consistent. Let’s just solve multiple problems at once – put Stronghold in its own queue, and change or remove the time limit so that people who queue up for Stronghold can expect exactly that.

4. A tutorial is desperately needed for this game type. We had several queues where our random player did not know what they were doing at all. That coupled with the lack of communication really hurt our initial push, and missing that can put you at a pretty big disadvantage.

Continued in next post.

Style Guide’s reward is actually an Accessory, not a backpiece, and it’s one you can choose the stat combo on, so it’s not AS ridiculous.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Wylenn%27s_Manual_of_Style

Palador.2170:

They are working on nothing.

Now, before any of you (Vayne) dismiss that statement, hear me out. Yes, they’re working on things, but those things are currently nothing.

First of all, the stuff they’re working on may not even be for GW2. So far as I’ve seen, nobody official has ever said it is. Maybe they’re developing a MOBA based on the Guild Wars franchise. Maybe it’s a whole new game engine for NCSoft. Maybe it’s a steampunk MMO where you fight against cultists trying to call forth the Old Gods. (Actually, I might not mind that last one.)

If it IS something that’s not GW2, then it’s not going to help us here. Worse, NCSoft can (and I know they did this twice to Paragon Studios) take a look at it and pull the plug, saying they don’t feel it’s worth supporting further development on it. In either case, as far as GW2 is concerned, all this work will amount to “nothing”.

If the work being done is for GW2, then it’s still “nothing”. ANet has made it very clear that plans change. This is pretty much their entire excuse for not talking about what they’re developing for the game, right? The nasty side of that is that anything under development can get the axe at any time. ANY effort they’re doing to develop new things for GW2 is at risk of never seeing the light of day. Remember Bar Brawl? They said it was ready to go before the game launched, and yet it never made it to live. Until something goes onto the live servers, it may as well not exist. It doesn’t matter how much work was done on it, it can still be scrapped.

Until the moment we have something in our hands (so to speak), everything ANet is working on is vaporware. There’s no guarantee that we’ll ever see any of it, or that it’s even intended for GW2. For us, it doesn’t exist. It’s nothing.

Schrodinger’s Expansion?

Quantum theories aside, for all practical purposes this is a meaningless argument. GW2 is making them money, so to guess “maybe they are making something else” is ridiculous. The reason the NPE was made was to support new players – something bigger is being worked on that will drive the new players in. And that means it’s “nothing” because it COULD be scrapped at some point? That’s negativity just for the sake of being negative – something that we already have enough of here WITHOUT you doing it for its own sake.

Zaxares.5419:

Does no one else here do collections simply for the sake of doing them? O.o I like the collections because they’re more things I can “tick off a list”. In many cases, like skin collections, I was already collecting the skins just for the sake of having them in my collection. To me, the bonus you get for completing the collection was just that, an extra bonus; I’d have done the collection anyway even if there wasn’t an AP or other type of reward. (I’d already completed the Bandit weapon collection months before LS Part 2 came out, for example.)

I actually think it’s a GOOD thing that these collections don’t offer ridiculously good rewards. It would spike up demand for these rare items even more and probably result in even more people complaining that they’re too expensive/difficult to get, that ANet only caters to grinders and the rich etc.

Well, to clarify, I will do the collections whether or not they have something unique attached to them. :P

I definitely agree with you on collections where the items are simply purchasable on the Trading Post. Those don’t need to be more in demand than they are, and I think that’s an excellent point.

Reading what you all have said – and there are a lot of good points here – I think what I would most prefer is that collections that are gated by doing content only (not ones with items you can trade for), such as the Ambrite Weapon Collection and the Fractal Weapon Collection, have unique rewards (e.g. titles, skins). Adding those to the rewards would encourage more people to do the content rather than increasing the prices of rare drops. More people in Dry Top and looking for Fractal groups can only be a good thing.

Thaddeus.4891:

Really? Its an exotic back item. They didn’t even try, its the same exact skin as one of the crafted exotic back item just with a special effect.

Yeah, but it’s still a unique skin to the achievement. I’m personally not a huge fan of the skin itself, but at least you cannot get that particular skin without completing the collection.

Nothing is going to appeal to everybody (as clearly this skin does not appeal to you! ), but something unique is still going to appeal to more players than something you can get through other means.

I think the reward for Spirit Crafter is right where the reward should be. If you like the skins or the content (I enjoy Dry Top, so I thought it would be cool to get the Ambrite Weapon Collection finished), the collection gives you an extra incentive to go all out for it. I just wish that MORE of those time consuming or expensive collections had unique rewards that show off your achievement. Some don’t like titles, others don’t like that the Spirit Crafter backpack is just a reskin – but both of those rewards are at least unique to doing the content and provide players with more long term goals to chase.

The Fractal Weapon Collection (once it is actually working) is another that could use a unique skin or title. Perhaps “Blessed by the RNG Gods”. :P

I love the addition of the Collection achievements – for players like me, they do make me want to do more content to fill them out. There are some awesome rewards to hunt after in the collections – However, I think some of the collections could use more “Proof”-based reward. The Spirit Crafter backpack and the Acolyte of Dwayna title are examples of what I am looking for, and those collections are awesome because of that – you can spend a lot of time and/or money to achieve those and show it off.

Achievements like Ambrite Weapon Collector and all of the Black Lion collections could use similar incentives added on – don’t get me wrong, the Ascended Armor chest for the former and pile of tickets for the latter are great, but why not add an “Archaeologist” title or an Ambrite Backpack skin reward to the Ambrite Weapon Collection? If I spend that much time farming geodes in Dry Top, I just feel like it would be nice to be able to display something unique that shows off the effort.

I can see not doing it for Black Lion achievements, though – it might drive the prices of those even higher and push it more out of reach of 99% of players. What are your thoughts?

Becka Williams.4978:

I dunno about tabs. I like the “see everything at a glance” function of wallet as it currently is. Plus, they’d have to change how it works to allow us to click on a tab.

What about allowing both, sort of like your inventory? A gear drop down that lets you choose between “tabbed view” and a view-everything with a scroll bar?

I’m a big fan of just expanding the wallet – but in an organized way. Add two tabs – one for Dungeons, and one for World currencies. Not only does this solve the inventory space and the “transferring currencies” problem, but when a new player looks through their wallet, they can hover the mouse over the Bandit Crest box and it will tell them “Acquired through helping the Pact contain the Mordrem threat in the Silverwastes, or as a reward from related Story missions,” with a telescope they can click to show them exactly where to go.

This is exactly the kind of smooth content integration that ArenaNet is always working for, and I think it’s the cleanest way to add it in. As a new tab in the wallet, it’ll take 14 more map-specific currencies before it would fill, and at that point either starting another tab or adding a scroll bar would still suffice.

Vendors accessing the Materials storage is an interesting idea, but I think it is more confusing – I thought the whole point of one of the Feature Pack 2 updates was to make that Materials only? And the initial Wallet implementation already changed dungeon tokens from materials to currency only. I am in favor of keeping currencies and materials completely separated, but would still be interested to hear more specifically how this change would be implemented.

Ah Svetli, again! Your opinions are always so fascinating. Tell me more about how unrealistic SAB is in a world full of plant people wielding greatswords made out of space.

Ah yes, the classic “objectively bad” argument. My mistake, I must have forgotten that your opinion was actually the correct one.

Svetli is right, how dare you try to make it known that you liked part of the game and want more!

This applies to everything else, too, of course. If you like dungeons so much, go make your own dungeon game! Want more PvP? Go make your own PvP game!

The reason why the metrics reported a low number of players in SAB is because they increased the challenge and length of levels, and decreased the rewards. Josh blogged about it plenty at the time – and patches went in to try and reduce some of the more challenging parts. Out of excitement, the dev team simply got overzealous and overambitious with the project and made everything bigger and cooler – without realizing it would be at the expense of its playability.

The Rewards are probably the biggest factor, though – SAB 1 was able to be run over and over for chances at rewards, and with its reasonably quick length, players spent hours running through the levels and enjoying the content. SAB 2 time gated it, and adding in the length of the levels, there would of course be a huge drop in playtime.

So please, do not get the misconception that players don’t want Super Adventure Box. Players want to be rewarded for their time. SAB World 2 didn’t do that very well, both due to reward structure and length/challenge of levels, so it didn’t see the same numbers as World 1. Many players want it back – if these issues are addressed, World 3’s release could be as popular or even more popular than World 1’s release.

“If you have an item that has gone through skin progression, like a legendary weapon or one of the Spinal Blade backpacks from the “Escape from Lion’s Arch” and “Battle for Lion’s Arch” releases, you will unlock all of the skins in that direct line of progression. That means that if you made Twilight, you will have access to both the Twilight and Dusk skins across your entire account. If you’ve created the Dynamic Tempered Spinal Blades, you’ll unlock that skin and all previous Spinal Blade skins.”

You will have Twilight, Sunrise, and Eternity skins, and you will have a physical copy of Twilight and Eternity (that provides stats, infusions, runes, and stat-swapping).

RoseofGilead.8907:

DaG.5103:

1. It first released last April Fools
2. GW1 had several sequential AF gags (The Terminator spoof), so they have a precedent for the content
3. It was ~6 months between World 1 and World 2, it has been ~6 months since that release.

It was released last April Fools, yes. But that doesn’t guarantee that they WILL repeat the same gag. While GW1 had some gags that built on old ones, they had others that did not.

Besides, I know if I were on the dev team, I wouldn’t want to do do what everyone was expecting on a day that’s about pranks and the unexpected.

Fair enough. But to say you don’t understand why many people do expect it is being a bit dishonest, don’t you think?

RoseofGilead.8907:

I really don’t get why so many people were EXPECTING SAB to make an appearance.

1. It first released last April Fools
2. GW1 had several sequential AF gags (The Terminator spoof), so they have a precedent for the content
3. It was ~6 months between World 1 and World 2, it has been ~6 months since that release.

Romo.3709:

You really expect to see SAB in the middle of WvW Tournament? C’mon people… It would be completely counterproductive for their big tournament if they were to release SAB right now. Especially considering the fact that SAB always stay around for four weeks.

I don’t buy this for a second. The last WvW Season took place during the end of Blood and Madness, the entire Tower of Nightmares story, the Fractured update, and the beginning of Wintersday. They had no issues putting out regular content then, and in fact, they’ve lessened the requirements for getting achievements during this tournament, so it is less of a strain on your time now as well.

Don’t get me wrong, Bobbleheads were awesome and I got some great screens.

I just had this faint hope that SAB would finally be back again. It made so much sense – 6 months after the last update, 1 year after the inception, update day fell on April Fool’s day…it seemed so obvious. But I guess they have been so focused on other updates that it’s not ready yet. =(

My wife and I were really looking forward to running through the next world and advancing our Applied Jumping degrees. I suppose we will have to keep waiting…

NoTrigger.8396:

arenanet hast learned absolutely nothing. they are destroying their own game. exactly what i expected when the devs said in the livestream “6/6 bonus of ranger runes is doing nothing”

Yes, removing illogical stat-increasing exploits is completely ruining the game.

Goo.7926:

Yeap! It’s the second year of GW2 and we have the same dungeons,

Twilight Arbor Aetherpath, Fractals of the Mists (including new fractals)
Limited Time: Molten Facility, Aetherblade Retreat

Goo.7926:

no raids,

Tequatl, Three-Headed Wurm
Limited Time: Clockwork Chaos, Watchwork Marionette, Scarlet’s Hologram

Goo.7926:

no new maps

Southsun Cove, Edge of the Mists
Limited Time: Zephyr Sanctum, Crown Pavilion

Goo.7926:

What’s the point of farming mats or gold with no new epic goals! I guess my heroic journey is almost over and i feel sad :’(

That’s too bad for you, I suppose. Just as the WvW tournament is about to start, major feature changes are coming, and a new dragon awakened. Nothing epic to do at all!

VideoGamermike.5813:

Finally, let me make something clear, THIS IS NOT SOME BASIS IN ALTRUISM. I do feel like some items I can’t sell, because the prices are too bloated. Thats not being some grand hero, thats me being uncomfortable and feeling like I’m cheating. It’s more akin to refusing to use a memory hacker for free gold, just because everyone else is. I feel bad cheating the game and people, if that means I can’t trade that item…oh well. I don’t get how people think, ‘i dont want to cheat’ somehow turns to being a grand ‘hero of the people’

People have this impression because you have given them the impression so far that you are trying to help people out. If you just feel bad selling the items at that price, I hope my above explanation helped clarify why the price is what it is. Gounging certainly does occur, but it rarely lasts long because the market is fairly robust. The invisible hand always plays its role.

If you do just want to help people out, I would echo the recommendation of others to join a guild that does donations and go that route. The trading post is the way it needs to be to protect the market.

VideoGamermike.5813:

And smith, this is where you and me disagree. You’re system does have a very serious flaw, it can’t adapt if the market changes and people like me arent comfortable going by old standards.
I do not have the same reasoning, situation, availability, location, or temporment, to many of the reasons for pricing that people set here. As such, my laws of pricing will be drastically different, some items(like armor/weapons) a bit more expensive, while the junk trophies worth little to nothing, with scale to consider the difficulty of level. The problem is, if the prices are set in stone by a bunch of precious transaction, the market is unable to change, because the people like me who aren’t comfortable with selling on these levels, have no means of influencing it.
Look, I get what you’re saying, and yes, there can some market problems(especially market dumping and scams) when given absolute freedom. But that’s going to happen, and being so afraid of market flops and economic changes that you disallow people to sell as they need to, just make a stagnant boring market that hardly ever changes. You’re defense has started to show the goal here to be way too stagnant and overly controlled, simply as a mean to stop market crashing. If you wanna kill trading to stop scammers, you’re already pushing it, but…this? How can I effect the market if it feels like I’m memory hacking anytime I use it.

I think John’s response was spot on here – it sounds like you may be a bit mislead as to how the trading post actually functions. If you check out gw2spidy, you will see that the market prices are most certainly not set in stone, and that price changes occur all the time. Players simply make offers for what they are willing to pay for an item, and other players can fulfill that or set a higher price. There is no reason to suspect people are being forced to be gouged and offering more than they want to.

And I should also mention that – and I hope this also does not come off as rude – but the integrity of the market actually is more important than some players’ (noble) desire to sell at cheaper prices. ArenaNet is right to take every measure they can to ensure that market crashes do not occur, because the impact would be much higher on the playerbase than a few players being a bit upset that they can’t sell things for cheaper.

I also think it is very nice that you are operating under the assumption that players who honestly need jute would buy it for your cheaper price, but unfortunately – and again, please do not take personal offense to this – it’s just a bit naive. There are far too many sharks in the marketplace who would buy it up right away and flip it immediately for its market price. Even if you could do it, you would likely only give a rich person more gold by selling them for cheaper!

I know you said that was your last post, but I hope you were able to read this and make a bit more sense of the topic. Feel free to message me instead of posting if you’d like, and we can talk through anything that doesn’t make sense.

VideoGamermike.5813:

I do want to apologize for my first comments, I took it too personally and should have made it clear that this was purely based on MY station in an economy, I would have likely been more agreeable if I fit what the ‘normal’ market trader does. But the post was me taking his comments on a personal level, and not making my point more clear, a problem I have a lot lately. However, I -was- personally attacked, and have been sense then, when you called an idiot and your ideas shunted, I don’t think you sit back and say nothing.

While I disagree with your opinions (more on that below), you should not have been insulted. I’m sorry that you weren’t treated with the respect that every poster here deserves!

VideoGamermike.5813:

Oh and, to someone question earlier, if someone comes to me willing to pay a gouging price because hes accepted ‘there no other way, i just have to grin and bear it’ and I make him pay a purposely gouged price, then yes, can be cheating him(even there’s nothing illicit going on)

So here’s the big flaw in your argument. Why have you determined that the price of rags/jute is “a gouging price”? John did a good job of explaining to you that the prices of goods are not based solely on their own scarcity. Unfortunately, and this is where some posters have been rather rude, but there isn’t much other way to explain this except to inform you – hopefully more politely – that you are incorrect.

The price of jute is based on its uses. Jute is used in leveling every armor crafting profession and can be used to transmute wool, which is needed both for leveling all 3 professions and for the very expensive Grandmaster crafting of ascended armor. Ascended armor takes a lot of materials, because you make many pieces of it, so you will need a lot of wool to complete this.

In addition, compared with level 80 resources, there is less jute being added to the market. Level 80s get a mix of early level drops and on-level drops, so you don’t get as much armor that can become jute when you are farming as a level 80. This scarcity issue is what affects the prices of wool, cotton, and linen more severely, because if you were to look at the levels of all characters in the game, there are far fewer characters level 20-70 than level 1-10s and level 80s, but there is still a significant gap between level 1-10s and level 80s – most active players are or have a level 80. They spend less time in low level zones, and when they do, get less jute, so you are going to see fewer T1 than T5 (though remember, silk is still more expensive because of its very high requirement in ascended crafting – this is actually a great counterexample to your theory of how prices should be!)

Finally, you mentioned that you could farm 20 rags in 20 minutes. Unfortunately, that is just not a very fast way to make money. Basically, if I want jute, I could get more money faster than you can farm rags, meaning even if I pay the full price for the rags that you wanted to sell for less, I will get more jute than you would just running around and farming them. This is precisely why the price of jute is what it is, and not less. Any items value is based solely on what people will pay for it, and what people will pay for it comes from a mix of scarcity, effort, and need.

Rangers lay traps to stun him and he can be damaged immediately.

That said, we didn’t just try this one time. Our last try was the 5 sec run. We had anywhere between 30-60 sec for a number of runs before that, with doors spawning as usual. The only common thing was using the traps at the beginning. I know others have done that, so has that caused other players to fail to achieve as well?

Nobody else experiencing this? Are you all getting your achievement just fine?

Our group defeated the prince in 5 seconds with no door summons and still couldn’t get the achievement. This achievement is definitely bugged. Anyone else getting this?

sinzer.4018:

All i can think of is that the LS achieves were removed to make way for halloween and WvW LS achievements. Maybe the devs thought it ridiculous to have 3 categories in there? Who knows but that septic tank is hideous.

Unfortunately for that theory, they’ve done 3 categories at a time already as well. =( During Bazaar of Four Winds and Cutthroat Politics, we had a category each for Bo4W, Support Ellen, and Support Evon. Also, I believe – though am not as sure about this one – that there were 3 categories during Jubilee and Clockwork Chaos because of the category for the story events that got you back into the Pavilion to fight Scarlet.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Well, they did mention that the backpack would only be available during that release on the first of October. You have to keep up with Dev posts, but there is a sub-forum just for reading their posts.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/archive/twilight/Meta-achievement-rewards-permanent-too/first#post2948912

I certainly read that it would be only available during that release. Unfortunately, specifying “during that release” doesn’t tell me anything about the release ending 2 weeks earlier than precedent set during the 9 month history of Living Story achievements. Again, at no point did the devs ever define a time frame for Twilight Assault. If an exact timeframe was communicated anywhere, at any point, give me a quote and I’ll shut up. I can deal with it being my fault for not seeing that it was gone – and hell, it’s just a cosmetic item I’d probably never use and a few achievement points, so ultimately it’s not a huge deal. It’s still frustrating, though, to be unaware a change is being made in the status quo after counting on what was set up by a fairly long-standing precedent.

Astraea.6075:

While I sympathize with the OP, a little thinking about the upcoming patch dates should have given most people pause to think that the pattern might change for Halloween. If the pattern continued unchanged, the Halloween patch would end after 2 weeks on the 29th of October.

Obviously, the change should have been more clearly communicated, but assumptions will always trip people up.

This is just a silly argument. We are both making assumptions here because neither of us know what the devs plans are. Sure, we can assume the pattern will change, but why is the more logical assumption that Twilight Assault will end earlier than the 9 month precedent? (I know, broken record, but it’s really my entire point.) It’s just as logical to assume they’ll simply extend Halloween an extra week and keep the status quo going at the start of the November release.

A little actual date communication from the devs is what really would have solved this problem. Again, give me a quote with a date and I’ll shut up. Until then, I’ll fight for this until a dev takes notice and makes sure future dates are better communicated.

Vayne.8563:

GoldenTruth.2853:

Vayne.8563:

While I can sympathize with you, there are usually two patches, and the second patch is usually only around until the next one. It’s been like this for a long time.

You had SAB for a month, but the Boss week achievements didn’t stay around as long, during the SAB month. It’s been going on for a long time now.

I, at least, was aware of how long the achievements would be around for.

What Anet needs to do on temporary achievements, I think, is to have a countdown timer on the meta screen or something like that.

At least all the other achievements and the mini can still be attained.

Well the TA path would fit into being the 1st patch (even though Halloween is staying for 1 month instead).

Like you said countdown timer would be nice (though they cant be specific about when next patch hits).

Not in my way of thinking. The first patch usually occurs early in the month, the second later in the month. SAB was clearly the first patch…because boss week before that was the short one.

You seem confused about the schedule. SAB was the 1st patch, and lasted the whole month. Boss Week was the 2nd (DURING SAB, not before) and lasted 2 weeks. Just like every other month. Previous months contained:

Jubilee and Clockwork Chaos
Bazaar of 4 Winds and Cutthroat Politics
Dragon Bash and Sky Pirates of Tyria
etc…

In each of these months, the first patch lasted the full month and the second lasted 2 weeks.

This month, Twilight Assault was the 1st patch, but unlike every other month before it, it only lasted two weeks.

I’m well aware of the schedule – I’ve missed a grand total of two LW achievements since Flame and Frost first began, which were the ridiculously difficult Cutthroat Politics candidate trials (though I still got those half done).

Twilight Assault was the first patch of the month. Every “first patch of the month” – every single one since the start of Living World – has lasted the entire month. Yes, some patches last two weeks, and those are the ones that start in the middle of the month, like this Halloween patch. Given that we weren’t told this would be any different than the status quo for the last 9 months – again, there is no mention whatsoever of an ending date in the release notes for Oct 1 like there is for the patch today – I think it’s reasonable to be a little annoyed with ANet.

Every other LW update has lasted an entire month, through the mid month content. This one abruptly ended today with the new content. Read through the patch notes for the Oct 1 release – there is no mention of it ending today. Were we supposed to assume it would be done today?

Just upsetting that my wife and I weren’t able to complete it because we assumed we could do it later this month after we had moved into our new house. Logged on today to find that’s not so. No Slickpack for us, I guess.

My wife and I are also very disappointed. We’ve been moving into a new house and were planning on hitting up the dungeon in the later part of the month. We got a chance to log on today for the new patch only to find that, unlike every living world update over the past year, the meta was already gone.

Please make it still obtainable for the rest of the month like every other living world update! OR, TELL US THAT THIS IS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT TIME! I looked through Oct 1 release notes today and saw zero mention of an ending date. Why should we assume it’s going to end in the middle of the month when no other update has done so yet? Very upsetting.

Jesseroo.8247:

Xalugami.2096:

The Glove is a major key item in the first place. Just finding the Eagle requires you to use the Glove, so would it not occur to you then that “hmm maybe we should get me the glove first since I’ll probably need it later”. They put the block there because that’s good design; can’t pass without the item because you need it. I wish they would add more party-wide item gates because riding the coattails of another player’s items is my biggest gripe with SAB.
If I find an obstacle that requires an item, instead of relying on someone else, I’ll go find the item since it’s going to be needed again in the future (like with the Toad Dojo Bauble, forgot I could even do that).

I’ve actually run into this problem in a group where people killed the glove guy (unbeknownst to me) and I ended up ported to the next checkpoint. Then at the end was surprised to find I needed an upgrade that I had no idea how to get. I think it’s a bit of a problem to require the whole group to have the item when you can easily find yourself skipping it.

Exactly. If that’s the case, there should be something stopping us from both getting to the eagle in the same way we cannot pass to the end of the level without both having the glove, or at least some way to travel BACK after we get to the end of the level so I can get the glove. From there, it appeared we were rather stuck and simply had to exit.

Just to be extra clear, I think we should have not been able to travel on the eagle in the first place without BOTH having the glove if we are going to BOTH require it to finish the level where the eagle drops us off.

We did not consider the leaving “workaround”, but like I said above, it shouldn’t be necessary.

My wife and I were playing through W2 Z2. It was my first time, but she had done it in infantile mode and had the glove. I don’t.

We found the eagle, and took it to the end, and lo and behold, we can’t get to the boss without BOTH of us having the glove. So now we have to redo the whole level.

Josh, I love a lot of what you’ve done here, man, but this is a textbook Bad Player Experience. Please do something about this, at least in the future zones. I should not be punished for finding your shortcuts.

Will the items purchasable with sprockets such as the Sovereign weapons and the new rune/sigil recipes be purchasable after the event ends, like was done with Fortune Scraps, Zhaitaffy, etc?

Vick.6805:

I agree to the extent that there has been too much emphasis on mini-games recently, and I think the two-week cycle is too fast to allow players to enjoy the content at their own pace (the releases seem somewhat frantic).

However, I also think most of the content has been fun.

Well, you see, when they started the living story with Flame and Frost (on a Monthly update schedule), the fine posters of this forum declared that there was not enough content. They wanted more to do. So they doubled the speed at which content is released – now people complain that there is too much content.

You have one month to complete one update’s content, and 2 weeks for another. If you HAVE to have everything done, then you HAVE to play more often. If it’s not important to you that you complete everything, then its timeframe shouldn’t be a problem.

Realistically, though, only the mid-month update could be said to be too short – I’ve found them just about right for my playing habits, hitting 2-4 hours on many days, and 0-2 hours on days when I work more – and I try to complete ALL the achievements with each patch. The content doesn’t bother me because if I didn’t enjoy it, I wouldn’t play it and would go run some temples, dungeons, fractals, WvW, etc. It’ll be nice when things all come together in the living world storyline and we see something more “dramatic” happening (which I suspect is what OP is looking for), but until then, I just play what I enjoy, and Molten Facility, Aetherblade Retreat, and even the mini games have been a nice diversion.

Arkham Creed.7358:

Viking Jorun.5413:

It’s a retextured Fellblade. This makes me somewhat mad if they’re going to start retexturing our hard-earned HoM rewards for the masses to have.

At least on the bright side we can be all but assured that these will be locked behind RNG chest and most of us will never actually see one. Seriously I think that at most I’ve seen maybe three Fused weapons on my server, and a grand total of ZERO of every other RNG weapon skin. Never seen a Southsun skin, never seen a Jade Dragon skin, and certainly never seen an Aetherized Skin.

Sclerite are quite rare, but I see Dragon’s Jade all the time, and I’m on Henge of Denravi. Anyone with 10-20 gold could buy enough coffers from the TP to have a good shot at one.

Tolmos.8395:

DaG.5103:

“Bring back the items we love from GW1!”

“Quit retexturing GW1 items and make something original!”

You know, there are biweekly content updates. Plenty of time to see BOTH.

It’s not the retexturing of GW1 items that folks are complaining about, its the retexturing of what was thought to be an exclusive GW2 item from the GW1 HoM that is causing the QQs.

Well, there’s a poster above who doesn’t indicate he’s talking about the HoM sword.

Which, by the way, is a Greatsword, and thus is still significantly different and unique.

Vol.5241:

Exclusive weapon/armor skins is good for me.

But knowing these forums, anything will be a massive disappointment.

Fixed that for you.

“Bring back the items we love from GW1!”

“Quit retexturing GW1 items and make something original!”

You know, there are biweekly content updates. Plenty of time to see BOTH.

God, I hope so.

ArchonWing.9480:

You make good points on the demographic problem. Even Gw2 itself needed some time sinks and a bit of progression to not completely alienate them.

However, it is my opinion that we have been conditioned to accept mediocrity. Obsessive players are like locusts; there is no way to satiate their tastes because they will simply consume everything that’s handed to them. And it’s been true in this game too. I won’t dispute that.

Still, I would have to say that my own personal interests (and hopefully a lot of casual players) would insist that quality of play trumps quantity of play. This isn’t a subscription based game. They don’t need us logging in every day and month. Hell, if we just occasionally logged on to see the newest content and spend money in the gem store, they would be most happy. cough

This game was designed to be put down and picked up later again. I stopped playing for several months and when I came back, the game was actually better. Pretty sure there’s a lot of casual gamers that do that; and these days when gaming is so mainstream, there’s going to be a larger crowd on this. And I wonder what kind of player is more likely to buy gold with gems.

And the competitive aspect of gameplay can keep players playing indefinitely if it’s engaging enough. Ok, currently the shape isn’t so great but if there were adjustments to emphasize skill, it will naturally grow a hardcore gathering… like any game really. I mean people take wvw seriously in its current shape. What if was actually better?

Basically, this game currently greatly emphasizes skill over gear in reasonably difficult content. (Some may argue that it’s because it’s too easy, but I guess I’m not godly enough, but that at least proves something. But hey, look at all the JP QQ) You certainly don’t need gear to succeed in anything in this game. I’d like to look at this game 3 years from now and feel the same thing.

In the end though, I am actually as well of reality as you are. In retrospect, I think fotm was an excellent way to contain the grindbugs, and wouldn’t fret if they made a few more hamster wheels to keep them occupied for the next decade or so. Until then though, I hope it doesn’t negatively impact my own gameplay.

I completely agree with everything you are saying. My only point of contention was in the reality of the MMO genre that we have reached a consensus on.

I, too, think that skill should be the deciding factor in the game. It’s what makes the battle system so much more engaging than most MMOs on the market. The game is certainly casual friendly and a good fit taking breaks, but it’s simply because they are a business that they need to try and keep as many players on as they can. More players makes the game feel more popular which obvious helps sales, and keeps their sPvP more full which allows them to reach for the stars when it comes to tournaments and casting, which, again, helps sales. Also, the more you are playing, the more likely you are to want to buy: bank/bag slots as you acquire more things, boosters as you are more active, and cosmetic/limited items as any sort of envy may set in.

So it’s a necessary evil, I think, but it’s up to ANet to keep the curve low and the progression slow but steady.

Flame and Frost brought the Molten Alliance to the shiverpeaks, and many players picked up flaming gauntlets, weapons, and a new mining pick with a Lava animation.

Secret of Southsun brought back the terrors of the seas, the Karka, along with some nautical skins and a sickle that brings up a Water font.

The Aetherblades and the Zephyr Sanctum brought us into the skies of Tyria, with sky-aspect items, sky pirate gear, and a logging axe that creates Electricity.

It seems logical to hit the final element next – Earth. Earth in GW2 includes Sandstorms (as Elementalists are well aware). Some players are putting up screenshots of a desert area reached by glitching out of Skyhammer (if I understand that correctly). Are we leading up to a journey into the Crystal Desert? I know it’s been postulated in other threads, but I wanted to focus on the elemental pattern that it seems like they’ve got going. Thoughts?

ArchonWing.9480:

DaG.5103:

ArchonWing.9480:

There’s no grinding? So there’s no large amount of repeating the same trivial tasks over and over again to acquire bigger numbers? Any method of acquiring earrings currently is both a time sink and a grind.

Then again, I don’t see the difference between the two. I just see it as a unnecessary waste of time.

You’re right, it is still an MMO. Let’s try to still see the forest for the trees, eh?

Are you not aware of the manifesto for this particular game? Perhaps you’re ignoring the trees.

Colin Johanson: “When you look at the art in our game, you say ‘Wow, that’s visually stunning. I’ve never seen anything like that before,’ and then when you play the combat in our game, you say ‘Wow, that’s incredible. I’ve never seen anything like that.’ In most games, you go out, and you have really fun tasks, occasionally, that you get to do, and the rest of the game is this boring grind to get to the fun stuff. ‘I swung a sword. I swung a sword again. Hey! I swung it again.’ That’s great. We just don’t want players to grind in Guild Wars 2. No one enjoys that. No one finds it fun. We want to change the way that people view combat.”

A massively multiplayer online game does not in anyone dictate that gear progression, grind, and general time wasting be a vital part of the game. But fine, I’ll stop being a jerk. The RPG part might actaully lend itself to a credible argument.

And please don’t say every other MMO does it. That doesn’t mean it’s any less good or bad.

Your theory is certainly sound, but you’d be hard pressed to find an MMO model that works without using time sink methods.

The problem is that players are obsessive. Too many players spend too much time playing a game.

Let’s say you release an MMO and completely eliminate grinding and time-gating. It’s like Mario! You log on, play through, and you get the ending and its rewards. Fantastic. How many players finish in one day? In several hours? Now, you tell them – come back next month! We’ll have a new thing to play through!

You hemorrhage players. These players will not be back next month, they’ll have forgotten and will be playing the next flavor of the month. Want them to stay in? Release updates faster – but good luck keeping players satisfied with the quality, or having enough money to even hire enough people to do the job fast enough.

Grind and time gating is required to keep players in your game. They need a REASON to do things multiple times, because enough content simply cannot be designed in any other way. Players don’t just complete content, they DEVOUR content. Through systems of Achievements, reward grinds, and time-gating, players can be remain interested in doing content until the next update releases without requiring too much in-house manpower to create it at the required speed.

So yes, part of being a Massively Multiplayer Online game is that you need a Massive number of players, and to have those players, you need to resort to some of the usual tactics. ArenaNet did a good job of eliminating some of the grind that is less enjoyable, but a portion of grind and well implemented time-gating is actually necessary for the lifespan of the game.

ArchonWing.9480:

There’s no grinding? So there’s no large amount of repeating the same trivial tasks over and over again to acquire bigger numbers? Any method of acquiring earrings currently is both a time sink and a grind.

Then again, I don’t see the difference between the two. I just see it as a unnecessary waste of time.

You’re right, it is still an MMO. Let’s try to still see the forest for the trees, eh?

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Veydar.5017:

Polish and skill tweaks are exactly that. Polish and tweaks. You can’t expect us to be content with such “advancements” while major issues remain unresolved for months. The zone that was introduced is visually appealing but so far it’s pretty much a wrapper for a jp and a mini game. What the rest of the devs are up to I don’t know but judging from the SOTG it hasn’t been much.

The point still stands that is non-minigame work. His argument is that they are devoting all their resources to minigames, when that is in fact not the case. Colin has stated that they have 4 living story teams, as well as additional larger teams for larger development projects. He has stated that things like LFG, loot overhaul, and even dungeons overhauls are coming. Heck, the loot overhaul was mentioned previously to be slated for end of summer release. HOW is that devoting ‘all their resources’ to mini games? Just because you don’t see it ‘right now’ doesn’t mean they aren’t working on anything else.

I really have to chuckle when people throw out there the ‘well anet must not care about their game, considering the state its in’ comments. Development takes time. Balancing, debugging, polishing takes time. In addition to all this, the locusts are screaming GIMME GIMME GIMME OR IM LEAVING! SO they have to address that at the same time. Patience is a virtue that the majority of people around here obviously don’t have.

This is very true.

Also, keep in mind that most of the Belcher’s Bluff code was already written (which many have experienced through the Order of Whispers personal story). The GW2 team has been trying something new and different with Living Story, and rather than kneejerk and immediately remove it after some players complain, they make the CORRECT CHOICE and continue to tweak until it works. With each new update we’ve seen tweaks towards the general will of the players. Look at the difference between obtaining Fused Tickets and Zephyr gear – they have moved from pure RNG to a hybrid of RNG and Work/Reward systems. Players want more permanent content, so they’ve announced that future updates will include such things. But in a game with so many players, you can’t just make quick kneejerk changes. Things take time to settle in, and I imagine that in the next 6 months you will begin to see more update content that you (and others) are looking for. You will also continue to see content like what has worked so far, so expect more mini games, jumping puzzles, and the like. You can’t please everyone – all you can do is try to please as many types of players as possible.