Guild Wars 2

To the mysterious Scarlet,

You may be brave enough defacing Queen Jennah’s likeness on a webpage, but do you dare show your presence here in the nest of vipers that is an MMO community forum?

I dare you. Heck, I double dare you.

:)

But seriously, I have to say this is an entertaining way to build up the storyline for the 20th. The poems and gifts sent to gaming sites were a very nice touch as well. I hope the story turns out to be an engaging one. We’ve needed a good, memorable villain and I think there is some real potential here.

I have to agree that ArenaNet is being inconsistent in how they are concluding the Living Story. If most of a storyline is seen through solo play then the conclusion should be soloable.

I appreciate Matthew Medina taking the time to post but world dynamic events, solo instances, scavenger-hunts and achievements are all solo-able content. We have been able to follow the story without needing to group so that has naturally led to an expectation that the conclusion would be the same.

Gating the conclusion of solo story line with group content is like forcing PvP players to do PvE content. It didn’t make sense in the personal story and it doesn’t make sense now.

And this is coming from someone who has options (friends or guilds) to access the dungeon. I don’t like seeing this kind of thing even though I know I will still be able to experience the content.

On a broader subject, I’ve never thought that grouped content in MMOs is an effective way to tell any story. Good stories have always been personal, not crowd, experiences.

Reading a book a personal experience. Even if you see a play or movie with a crowd, you are NOT interacting with that crowd (unless you’re incredibly rude lol).

I’ve always been mystified by the attitude of MMO devs that throwing a group at a storyline makes the experience better when they have know that doing anything with a group distracts from the story.

Bear in mind, I do not think there’s anything wrong with grouped content (yes, this is an MMO) but only when the story is not the primary focus, say when players are grinding or looking for a hard PvE challenge. If the storyline is being emphasized (rather than the grind or the challenge) then the story should be kept a personal experience.

Players shouldn’t be forced to interact with other players to see an important storyline anymore than book readers should be forced to read over someone’s shoulder, or people in the audience should be forced to constantly talk to the person next to them in a play or movie.

I wouldn’t mind see a first person view even if it couldn’t be accessible in combat. My screenshot folder would certainly appreciate it.

skullmount.1758:

Frosty and Frosty Law Firm.4981:

You(The players) asked for harder content.

You(The players) will now deal with what you get.

Except not all of us players asked for harder content.

I did not. I have been asking that the storylines not be gated behind content scaled for groups to allow the entire playerbase to easily see the story. The Tower puts a solo-able instance behind mobs that require a zerg to access which is pretty much the opposite.

I suppose I cannot argue the instance was soloable since I did do it solo, but it was certainly not what I would call entertaining. Getting there with a solo character was far more irritating than fun but at least I found a zerg. In the instance, needless add spawns eliminated any entertainment I might have gotten out of the bosses and their mechanics.

At least ArenaNet had the good sense to make the NPCs useful and even amazing resilient (an astonishing change from the suicidal, lobotimzed, monkey NPCs of GW1). But the last boss fight just deteriorated into annoying and tedious by the end. I would rather have the choice to kill the thing quick and get less rewards so I can get on to doing something fun in the game.

I constantly wonder why GW2 doesn’t offer difficulty level choices for things like this. They have a scaling system. They know it’s important or they wouldn’t have bothering making Story and Explorer mode dungeons.

The upshot is that I have no urge to do that instance again. That bar in the upper right can stay in place forever for all I care.

Scarlet is an improvement over the villains we’ve had in GW2 so far and I hope ArenaNet continues to move in that direction but I can’t argue that the villains from GW1 were more interesting.

I don’t remember specific White Mantle characters but I do remember watching them kill those innocent villagers and I remember their obnoxious attitudes. Those were guys you wanted to beat up and stop.

I did not finish the Factions campaign but what I saw of Shiro in the game made him seem a very intriguing villain.

That may be one of the big flaws of GW2’s villains. We never SEE them in the game except to fight them. The only way we are shown their backgrounds is through out-of-game stories, which are fun to read but they should not be the ONLY source of character development shown to players.

We got to know the White Mantle (and suspect something might be up with them) while playing GW1. We’re shown visions of Shiro’s past while playing the game. You didn’t need to read any wiki or story, it was all there in the game.

In stark contrast, we never even see Zhaitan until the very end. Any minion that shows up is quickly killed with nothing being shown in the game for their characterization beyond being a slave doing the the dragon’s will. Scarlet’s background is left to an out-of-game story rather than having characters see (uncover) it in the game.

I just realized this is another example of ArenaNet’s tendency to leave out important explanations inside their game and expect players to research the info (or telepathically mind-read it). They did this in GW1 and they have done this with game mechanics in GW2 but at least they now taking a first step to fix this lapse by finally making a tutorial, they’ll need many other steps but at least it’s a start.

On the story side, they have the same problem. They leave out worthwhile story elements from the game and expect every player to be reading out of game material to learn them.

A story or a wiki should be a supplement, NEVER the main source of information of game lore or mechanics. Any player should be able to get the full story (or understanding of any game mechanic) solely by explanations providing in the game.

Fortunately, it looks like ArenaNet is improving how they present stories with the new cinematics. I just hope they manage to finally break themselves of their habit of leaving out important information from their game.

Shiren.9532:

Zhaitan killed Tybalt Leftpaw. Checkmate.

The problem was Zhaitan never gloated over it. He never mocked our characters after doing it. From what we’ve seen Zhaitan didn’t even know that he killed an NPC important to our characters anymore than a hurricane would know it knocked down a house.

A good, memorable villain makes you want to hate them. The Elder Dragons are so empty of personality and motivation (from what we are shown in the game) that there’s nothing for us to hang any feeling of vengeance. You might get angry at a flood, but you can’t hate it anymore than you might hate a rock if it fell on top of Tybalt and killed him.

I believe the dev post said that Guild Bounties missions would require guild levels attained from Art of War/WvW?

If these Guild Bounties missions are in the WvW zones then that makes sense. If these bounties are anywhere else, then that is counter-intuitive and I have to agree that would be a bad idea. PvE guild missions should require guild levels from PvE content, WvW content should lead to guild content directed at WvW.

*How would you like to see Raiding function if this activity were part of GW2?

I don’t want to see raiding in GW2. The sentiment expressed by Massively writer Eliot Lefebvre says it best.

“- we as a community are going to look at hardcore raiding the same way we currently look at Ultima Online’s open PvP, as something that MMOs survived in spite of rather than because of.”
http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/08/11/the-nexus-telegraph-addictions-that-wildstar-must-kick/

WoW had to constantly tweak and twist their raids until they finally implemented a raiding tool that allows PUGs. WoW has always been the exception of MMOs, and companies that tried to copy WoW have failed. Hardcore raiding did not work in Wildstar, I do not think it will do any better in GW2.

But the comments from Anet developers say that they want to make raids accessible. That is the antithesis to the fundamental function of raids which is a timesink meant to impact large groups of people rather than single players. Now ArenaNet has tried to innovate in various areas, perhaps they can do it with raids.

If they do manage to make raids “accessible” then whatever is created will bear NO resemblance to what has been seen in other games of the past. It will have to be something completely original that throws away the host of flawed mechanics that traditional raiding brings (forcing players to schedule their lives for a video game, time-gating content, gear-requirements, tedious mechanics, etcetcetc)

Best of luck going this route. Personally I would rather see ArenasNet expend their resources on any other content or system.

Since a request for ideas was made, here is the following:

Proposal Overview
Raids without bosses

Goal of Proposal
Traditional raid bosses involve “heroes” whacking the boss on their feet or knees. Very epic imagery. Instead players take on an army.

Proposal Functionality
Just as players in the Tequatl fight have to form groups for the turrets or turret/boat guards, set up a front line with multiple barracks that need to be held against the invading army. Players need to divide up between the barracks and fight off the opposing mob horde. There is no zerg stack, there is no standing in one place hitting a boss in the toe.

Response teams can act as reserves, with a commander needing to monitor which barracks are being held and send in reinforcements.

A visual cue of could show many waves are left. To reduce number of NPCs being rendered, use transport vessels waiting in rows to disgorge their troops in Space Invader like columns. This could serve as a visual cue to the commander for which barracks are killing mobs and which are having problems based on the number of transports left in each column.

All barracks could face equal difficulty mobs or the barracks near the center could face harder mobs. New players would be told to man the flank barracks, perhaps achievements are needed to be able to move to the center barracks.

Variety could be added by mixing up the NPC troops that attack the barracks. Providing siege weapons etc.

Associated Risks
No idea whether this would be feasible. There are large numbers of mobs in the Mad King’s Labyrinth and the game seems to function. I don’t know if spreading out players over a larger front line would help.

I agree 100% that the Canach solo mission is horribly designed. I was actually looking forward to seeing the next step of the Living Story, but this encounter left an incredibly bad taste in my mouth. And I managed to succeed at the thing with probably less trouble than most.

First of all, there are so many karka trash mobs on absolutely ridiculous respawn rates on the way to the entrance that any solo player attempting to reach it will die. This is for a SOLO mission and they make it so you have to have a GROUP just to get to the entrance? Who thought that made any kind sense?

Then you are confronted by a bizarre mechanic where your abilities are doing no damage and so all the skills you have developed playing your characters are entirely useless fighting an annoying boss with irritating skills like knockdowns and charges.

I was very fortunate, I brought my mesmer onto the mission and it turns out Canach can be damaged by Confusion. I could spam abilities that gave that condition so I never once lead him over any mines, I never once had to jump through those ridiculous hoops the devs made for this encounter. The resulting Confusion-only damage fight was boring but at least I won. Which is far, far better than dying even once to that irritating encounter.

If I had brought any other character, I’m certain I would have failed the fight and after the trouble of just getting to that encounter that would left me with no more desire to play for a day and likely more. I haven’t experienced that feeling since the Karka Invasion finale, how fitting that once again Southsun Cove has provided yet another one of the low points of my experiences playing GW2.

Please keep FOV like that! Those screens look great!

ColinJohanson.2394:

kissofthehell.3720:

Is there time when the event will start or its going to repeat for the whole day of 28th?

There is no one time only content in the May releases, it’s all available for week(s) or in some cases, will be available permanently.

Thank Dwayna!

It’s great to see ArenaNet continuing to move GW2 to be an MMO where people don’t have to reschedule their lives. I love the game but it is still a game, it should fit to my schedule not the other way around.

Again ArenaNet is proving that they learn from their past missteps, and that’s will only make GW2 better and better. I hope more MMO developers are watching what ArenaNet is doing.

Hello Everyone! Some of you may have already seen the webcomic I started over on Guild Wars 2 Guru called Dynamic Events. I’m going to be posting updates here as well. The comic started two years ago so there are a good number of them if you’d like to read through all of them all in one sitting.

Below are the first 12 comics. The rest can be viewed at my Deviant Art site (since I don’t think the mods would want me attaching all of the back comics on this opening post). They start on this page:
http://invincibleoverlord.deviantart.com/gallery/34469905?offset=72

Russian Translations
I switched to B&W this year so I could get them out more easily and a cool GW2 fan in Russia named Roman147 began coloring them while an equally cool GW2 fan named Deadkid translated them into Russian! (Spaceeba to Roman147 and Deadkid!)
http://www.deviantart.com/download/322866499/dynamic_events_rus_88_colored_by_deadkid258-d5c85dv.png
Roman147’s Deviant Art page.
http://romanr417.deviantart.com/

Avellia.1873:

While twitter is a great medium for getting a message out fast, this isn’t the appropriate use for it. (ie stand near the lighthouse 10 min before event starts). Not everyone has facebook/twitter. You have an in-game mail engine, please use it for this. eg mail from Whispers Agent “PSST. I heard a rumour that you might want to be near…”

I agree wholeheartedly with this point. Facebook/Twitter should only be tools, not necessities.

All any GW2 player should need to get all the communication and information they need is to log into the game. If the systems for that do not exist in the game, they need to be created.

Evon Skyfyre.9673:

If you like being on one server and not being able to play with friends, on a different server, without starting over, you might not like Guild Wars 2.

Corollary 1: If you like being stopped from playing with your friends because they have the audacity to level their characters at a different rate than you, you might not like GW2.

Corollary 2: If you like being stopped from playing with your friends because they haven’t picked the right classes to fit the trinity that uninspired developers say you need to play together, you might not like GW2.

Kain Francois.4328:

DoctorOverlord.8620:

Story/lore should be accessible by players of ANY skill level.

That’s like saying you should be able to progress in Final Fantasy 7 even though you insist to attack the Scorpion boss while his tail is up.

This is most definitely a l2p issue. If you’re having hat much a difficulty with this boss, then PM me ingame and I’ll teach you which tactics to use.

I beat the Fort Salma boss and I’m sure I can waste my time to figure out how to beat this boss, don’t try to act like any game is that hard to figure out.

PvE content in videos games is about learning to jump through the right hoops at the right time. I don’t consider that either skill or tactics, it’s just a timesink. I can understand a sub-based game using that kind of mechanics, it’s needless in a B2P game like GW2.

Modern single player games have something called Difficulty levels. It gives the player the choice of whether they want to spend their time sloughing away at a game. GW2 started to implement a similar mechanic in their dungeons using the Story and Explorer modes. I’m highly disappointed to see they are throwing that worthwhile mechanic out.

Offering something similar for the Living Story would allow players of any level (or available time) to go through the content the way they want to do it. The higher difficulty levels would provide gating for greater rewards and achievements. Story and lore should not be gated in that way, but it looks like ArenaNet has decided to go that route.

I’m very glad to see a public statement like this from ArenaNet. It has all the standard press-release phrasing but it does acknowledge that there were issues and it’s pretty clear the last phase of the Lost Shores event were what was being referenced.

It may be a cliche but acknowledging the issues is the first step toward fixing them. Those of us who have been playing MMOs for a while can probably think of other developers in the past who would have been saying something like the Lost Shores lag party was nothing but an unbridled success.

ArenaNet has shown they know how to fix their mistakes. Hearing that they will be taking a hard look at all the things that went wrong last Sunday makes me feel much better about the future of GW2.

Twomix.5384:

If I may suggest, how about a solo mode for the storyline dungeon ? Often I play during odd hours due to work and often it’s impossible to find anyone to do the dungeons with. I love the storyline and I’m a lore junkie and would love it if I can experience the storyline.

I like this suggestion! It doesn’t even have to give any rewards (well, except the standard mob XP and drops). I would like to just see the dungeons for the lore but my friends on other servers and guesting is not implemented (Hint*hint* Any word on it ArenaNet?)

I agree with the OP 100% regarding story. Story and lore is one of the main things that serves to unite an MMO community. We all share the setting of Tyria – casuals and hardcores alike know why humans and charr hate each other or why you don’t get a quaggen angry. You don’t have to be an RP-er to see how the lore of a game (or TV show or book) unites the fans of it.

Content like the AetherBlade Retreat, however, drives a solid wedge in one of the few things that every GW2 player shares. Gated storylines have been done repeatedly in MMOs of the past where conclusions of plotlines were hidden behind raids or dungeons only accessible to hardcore players. It is dumbfounding that ArenaNet would cling to this wretched mechanic when they have made such strides in so many other systems.

It is particularly poor design when the start of a storyline is introduced with soloable, casual content but the conclusion to the story is far more difficult grouped content.

MMO developers who think this constitutes good storytelling should have the last chapter of a book ripped out or be escorted out of the theater 10 minutes before the ending of a movie and then read about the ending on a wiki page to see exactly how this method “enhances” the story experience.

To be clear, I have no problem with challenging content. Legendary gear or noteworthy titles/achievement should be the result of effort if people want to put in the work. Story, on the other hand, should be something freely shared with the whole community.

Kruhljak.2705:

Easier modes with lesser rewards is a good idea for us and others like the OP and won’t take away much of anything from anyone else, and shouldn’t be a major time sink for devs. Annnnd it would make a lot of people happy.

The bizarre thing is that single player games have been doing this for DECADES. I can’t recall the last time I bought a single player game that didn’t have difficulty levels with unlocks offered on more difficult settings. This allows a broad base of customers to play the game while offering challenges (and rewards) for those who want it.

Yet MMO developers continue to ignore this idea that has proven so effective in single player games. Perhaps because MMOs don’t have scaling systems built directly into their engines. Oh wait, perhaps we know of a game that does?

TLDR – Challenging content is fine for achievements and rewards, but storylines should be made available to the entire community, both casual and hardcore. Difficulty scaling (with reward adjustments) is one straightforward solution.

Death Reincarnated.3570:

The problem I see with all the players crying about dodge is most likely centered on the fact that these players DON’T use dodge – WoW is that way —-——————>

Wrong. The problem is that some players have developed the habit of dodging early, thus avoiding any damage but never activating the Evade proc needed for the achievement. This achievement showed this is how I play and I needed to deliberately change my timing to get the Evade proc. During the normal course of playing, I am successfully avoiding damage but not getting the proc simply because of my timing is slightly different than other players.

There are others who have expressed the same thing on this thread:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Daily-Dodger-3/page/2#post1334913

Don’t assume that just because you don’t understand a viewpoint that it is not based on legitimate reasons.

IndigoSundown.5419:

That’s what a public test server is for. But wait, GW2 doesn’t have one. The Live servers shouldn’t be a beta test, nor should the player base sub for the QA department.

There is that. It is curious not seeing a Public Test Server. I would think it would be a useful source of data.

Whenever I buy an MMO my friends are spread across different servers, they have different leveling rates and they always pick ever class imaginable.

I have been able to play with more of my friends, more often and more easily than any other MMO I have ever tried. It doesn’t matter what server they are on, it doesn’t matter what level they are and MOST importantly it doesn’t matter what class they are.

Unless future MMOs can provide the same experience of allowing me to actually be able to GAME with my friends, I doubt I’ll have any tolerance for them.

Also I’ll never be able to play any other MMO where I have to back away and apologize for tagging ‘someone else’s’ mob or get ninja-ed over some bloody resource node.

People can complain about the mechanics or balance or whatever, that fundamental element of being able to play with any of my friends makes it the most enjoyable MMO I have ever played.

Melchiorum.2745:

That is exactly what I mean. Who would want to do that?

Such is my concern. I am never in favor of mechanics that try to induce players to do things they would not normally feel like doing. I heartily agree with the attitudes towards things like crafting and jumping puzzles. I want them to be in the game because I will do them when I’m in the mood, but the game should not push players toward them or mixing them together with other gameplay mechanics.

For example, I don’t mind if a jumping puzzle leads to a secret, cool location or a chest. But putting skill challenges or vistas behind a complex jumping puzzle is mixing content in a way that doesn’t work IMO. It’s like saying burgers are good and chocolate is good so it must be even better to throw them both into a blender.

But I’m remaining hopeful regarding the new daily achievements. I think the daily system will likely work much better with the future plans where we can pick to do only some, rather than all, of the requirements. I think that could improve the system and allow people to avoid the elements they don’t like, which would be great.

It’s curious why ArenaNet did not release the new dailies with that choice option, but perhaps they intended to ease people into the new system.

In a recent post, Matthew Medina said that the writing team is now able to script NPC dialogs allowing the possibility of us seeing more stuff like the NPC interactions in the Kessex Hills, post-Tower camp.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/nightmare/Thanks-for-a-good-conclusion-to-this-story/first

I would like to suggest that one of the first things they can do is change the NPC dialogs/interactions near high traffic areas like the bank and AH. As charming as that conversation between the two little girls playing behind the bank or the asuran child and the gruff old charr may be, they’ve gotten a little old hearing them for the last year and a half.

These are prime locations to put in new NPC conversations and scripting interaction that would get a great deal of notice. Perhaps not every player would hear them but I think a large portion of the population would. They would be ideal to flesh out more of the lore and drop interesting hints in connection to the LS.

It would be entertaining to see iconic characters show up by the bank like the member’s of Destiny Edge and such. I think it would add to making the world a bit more alive if you saw the NPCs in such high traffic area changing, even if the NPCs in the other parts of the world do not.

The last phase of the event was the least enjoyable experience I have had in the game to date. (The earlier phases were better and FotM is a very fun dungeon, this post is mostly about the last phase of the event).

o The lag was horrendous and I was on overflow. Players dying constantly due to invisible mobs that render right on top of you. My most vivid memories from this event will be laying there dead with dozens of other dead players all waiting to rez (because the run back was incredibly annoying and the zone horribly designed to prevent people from getting back to what they wanted to do but more on that later)

Regarding the lag, the number of people allowed into each shard could have been reduced and the difficulty of the event scaled.

o The waves of mobs simply became tedious. By the end it was no longer remotely fun and I’m not sure this would have been any different without the lag. The trash mobs could have been in half, making the event an hour or hour and a half, which would have been far more tolerable. Not fun perhaps, but tolerable.

o Running back and forth over that zone. First we have to run to the south end of the island, then back up, then back, then forth, etc. This was fine when you were in the event zerg but when you were solo trying to run through mobs who use Cripple and various other effects meant to inhibit your travel. If you waypointed after dying you wasted more time traveling rather than doing anything fun (or you simply died again trying to get back to the event).

The headcrabs or whatever those mobs are should simply be removed Massive numbers of them added to the already hideous lag and they needlessly slowed down players who were simply trying to get back or travel.

Don’t prevent your players from trying to do what they want to do. The Cripple effects in this zone and the headcrab mobs latching onto players and slowing down travel were pointless and would have been better left out entirely. (And I don’t care you could roll to kill those mobs. That was not obvious and if they slowed down players even ONCE that was too much)

o The zone itself makes things needlessly annoying with all of those steps and uneven terrain but perhaps it was the lag that made things particularly difficult simply moving around during the fights. Having the event take place only on areas with flatter terrain would not have reduced the difficulty and taking away yet another annoying factor in the event.

o The -only- time I found myself moderately enjoying the event was defending the bridge near the waypoint camp. Partly because the lag was less and mostly because the waypoint was right there. You could get back into the action without needing to avoid mobs.

I am thankful this is one-time only event. I never want to see anything like this ever again. After the Halloween event which was so well done and so much fun, this was a glaring contrast, a bug-filled and thorroghly un-enjoyable experience.

On the positive side, I did enjoy the build-up to the event. The whales and the story were intriguing. And ArenaNet fixed the bugged scavenger hunt mission quickly enough. It’s too bad that the final event left such a bad taste in my mouth.

I am glad that I’m not one of the unfortunate people who had to suffer through this event without even getting any reward. I hope ArenaNet will take steps to do something about that. I was able to get the rewards but I would trade -all- of that loot simply if the event could have given half the entertainment as a single Fractal run.

Overall, this was a disappointment. If ArenaNet meant for this to be a way to attract new players with the Invite a Friend, I worry that it did not leave a very good impression.

thealienamongus.1968:

the FAQ is out

There is no reason for this change to the town clothes, it unnecessarily restricts the use of both outfits and the clothes that will become tonics. You won’t have the option to mix & match, I have Devil horns, the pirate outfit and the witches broom equipped on my main I will no longer be able to do that.

Just make them all skins with no armor restrictions since the current town clothes can be used by everyone and are largely gem store only.

Thanks for posting the link to the FAQ. It’s nice that ArenaNet put that out yesterday, it would have been even nicer if they told people about it with a link on the blog.

I agree with your views, I would like the ability to mix and match costume/outfit items. It’s also unfortunate tonics can’t be dyed. I would prefer everything to just be individual item skins.

PopeUrban.2578:

Nobody cares if they have to wait a little bit for this to happen.

I am 100% behind this. I am willing to see this get pulled for April and implemented in a better manner at a later date.

If they are fixing things in the latter half of the PS, I really hope they fix the content itself.

I barely remember any of the specific chapters or the storylines in the Zhaitan parts of PS, because the most memorable thing that stuck in my mind was wanting to throw my keyboard out the window because of the boring, tedious, timesink fights and scenarios that fill the PS.

I remember the idiotic boss that spammed veteran spiders, I remember rolling my eyes and wondering when the Claw Island scenario would finally end, I remember constantly thinking that the PS content is not challenging, it’s just drawn out and tedious.

Maybe some players who like this kind of timesink ‘challenge’. I’m here to say that there others who play the PS because they want to see the story not waste their time jumping through hoops. If they are going to fix things in the PS, if they want more people to actually DO it, they should to fix this.

Simple solution – something that has been in single player games for decades and is already part of GW2’s engine – scaling/difficulty settings. Every single player game for the last 25 years offers this choice to players. GW2 already offers difficulty settings in dungeons with Story and Explorer mode. Since the PS is meant to be an instanced, solo experience with GW2, this would be a logical thing to offer.

I could care less about the changes of PS because after running through it once with one character, I never want to go through any of that content again. Offer an option to make the content less tedious and less of a timesink (and take away the rewards for all I care), and I might be inclined to play it again to see the other branches.

Oh wonderful. So far every final boss fight of in Season 2 has been tedious, annyoing and completely lacking anything resembling fun.

Hearing this fight is worse than Fort Salma drains away any interest I have in following this storyline. I detested the Fort Salma fight and I would feel the same way even without that major NPC bug at the end. Even though I would like to see how this story develops, I play games to enjoy myself and that is the opposite of what I experienced so far in the content design of Season 2.

A well-designed challenge in a game makes you want to try it again if you fail. A frustrating timesink makes you wonder why you’re wasting the time trying to get through it. So far the content of Season 2 has felt more like needless timesink rather than a well-designed challenge.

I still don’t know why ArenaNet doesn’t split the ‘challenging’ content away into an Achievement mode and provide much more straightforward Story mode content for these chapters. They do it for the dungeons and that worked very well, it’s disappointing that they have forgotten that.

Another advantage of straightforward content is that even if is laden with bugs (as the latest update seems to be), at least players have a better chance of being able to finish it rather than getting locked out by poorly designed content that thinks its ‘challenging’.

Gyler.8150:

OP, this is probably not the content for you. That or it is a most definite learn to play issue.

Story/lore should be accessible by players of ANY skill level. It is the one thing that unites a community whether they are hardcore or casual, dedicated or part-time. The lore of the game provides a common ground for players and that is the foundation needed for a strong community.

Gating story and lore behind needless timesinks pretending to be challenges is not a good idea. Achievements are available for those who have the time for that kind of thing and want to replay content over and over for the challenge. Story and lore content is not the place to frustrate players, it ruins the story presentation and detracts from a sense of drama.

Remember in Star Wars how Luke Skywalker kept having his X-wing get blown up and how he had to go back to the Rebel base over and over to stretch out the ending another hour? No? Because that’s a terrible way to tell a story. Games shouldn’t tell a story like that either.

I don’t have a dynamic IP address and the authenticator keeps forgetting when I click the authorized network box.

I don’t mind authorizing a PC but do we have to do every single time we want to play the game? That will make me disable it if that’s the case.

The problem is that the Living Story is supposed to be telling a story. The point of the LS is not to provide a drop for precursors or loot, the point isn’t the extraneous, tacked-on titles and achievements, the point of the Living Story is to tell the kitten-ing story.

Nothing destroys the dramatic pacing of a decent story than an annoying slough through a tediously designed boss encounter. EVERY, single boss fight in the Living Story I have seen has been just that. I’ll grant the boss fights have provided variety, but you can figure out the different mechanics in a minute or so, then after that it’s a long, needlessly drawn out encounter that makes you sick of it long before it is over.

You can grit your teeth and grind through these encounters, but they are not anything close to what would be called entertainment. This content design makes getting to the end of the plot a wretched chore, and that destroys any enjoyment in seeing the story. Which is shame because the story does seem worthwhile, but by the time I finish these boss fights I just want to shut off my computer and walk away.

Now I understand that there are those who like sloughing through a long, drawn-out encounter because they consider it ‘challenging’. It’s a long tradition in MMOs and I don’t expect that to change. The baffling thing is that ArenaNet has shown they understood the importance not letting tedious ‘challenges’ get in the way of storytelling. They showed this with the excellent concept of Story and Explorer modes for the dungeons. People who wanted to see the story were allowed to experience that and those who have the time to spend on tedious grind can do that for rewards.

If anything needed this concept applied to it, the Living Story would be it. The writing of the story deserves better treatment than what the content designers are doing to it.

Much of the issue of the Lost Shore final phase was due to the lag but there are many complaints about the actual design of the event being too long, too boring etc. It’s strange since ArenaNet has done well in other aspects of the game such as the Fractals (which is really amazing). But in the final phase of the Lost Shores they did things which just don’t seem like they should be in a one time event.

Remove the one-shotting attacks. Lower the number and difficulty of mobs. Keep the difficult stuff for the 5 man dungeons where lag isn’t an issue and people can see the mob tells and have the time to consider strategy. In a one-time event, people are too frantic that they’re going to miss something to bother with much organization. Realize that you are dealing with a mob and design the event for the mob-mentality.

If this was a repeatable event you can do more complex designs but if people are only going to do this once, then make it for the mob. Because that’s what will show up.

Some may complain the event would seem too easy. I would trade that for what we saw today and wasting much of time laying there dead with dozens of other players waiting for others to finally push back the mobs to rez us.

The karka hive design was a terrible idea. Funneling mass numbers of players into an enclosed space and into what was basically a spiral choke/hallway no doubt added to the issue of rendering and lag. If you know there are going to be masses of players, give them a wide open area ALL the time to move and disperse the crowds

Don’t deliberately make movement annoying. The Lost Shores zone itself is filled with annoying shelves and steps that make simple maneuvering irritating. This is fine if one is exploring or doing a jumping puzzle, this isn’t good in a mass zerg where timing suddenly becomes an issue just to move up an incline.

This should have been considered in designing the event. The boss should have stayed in the flatter, more level areas and away from the areas with those shelved inclines.

More waypoints. Even if the lag is killing players, with better waypoints at least they could easily rez. People were refusing to rez in this event because they didn’t want to have run through all those annoying mobs that would Cripple, immobilize and kill a solo player. Speaking of which:

Get rid of those karka hatchling/headcrabs. Apart from the additional rendering issues. this goes back to not making the simple act of movement annoying. There’s no reason to slow down or kill players that are simply trying to get back to the event to try to eck out a little bit of XP while they suffer through the lagfest. These mobs have the sole purpose of making the simple act of movement a teeth-grinding pain and should never have been created.

It seems that the event would have gone off much better if it had been kept straightforward, simple and short. This seems like what should be done if this kind of event is attempted in the future.

Erebus Delirium.4892:

HOWEVER, I can tell this was intended to be a difficult fight. People who kept getting near the Ancient karka and then complaining about dying were completely foolish. People often just laid around without waypoint ressing too (though as I said I did encounter an issue with waypoint ressing). The problem is this event left lots of excuses in which players could scapegoat their own inadequacies to issues with the game itself.

I disagree entirely which this sentiment. The event design itself was flaws in ways I never expected to see from ArenaNet.

Read this post for the REAL reason people were not rezzing. I know this because I was chatting with the other players as we lay there dead. It was the zone and event design that served to make it needlessly tedious rather than making it enjoyable. The lag simply exacerbated what was already a badly made event.

Necro-ing this thread just to say that the new crafting UI is a vast, vast improvement. Thank you to the team who upgraded it.

I am so glad I put off crafting any Ascended items until this new UI came out. I don’t even want to imagine what it must have been like for those poor devils who had to use the old UI. Oh wait, I hit 400 in all my crafting skills before this, so I can imagine it.

At least now the UI makes crafting Ascended items into something tolerable rather than an activity where a root canal seemed like an entertaining alternative.

That last one with the sylvari to be one of the more disturbing GW2 images I have ever seen :o I’ll never gather another wood in-game the same way again!

Vote #TeamKralkatorrik

Been playing since the release, just found out all those Mystic Forge stones that I’ve been piling up can be used to make a much more cost-effect 250 use salvaging kit.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mystic_Forge_Stone

I would like to see very much like to see downgrading but the exchange rates would be seriously strange since the current crafting system/drop rates/node spawns have made Tier 2 materials (Iron Ore, Soft Wood Logs, etc) worth 3x their Tier 5 counterparts (Mithril, Elder Wood Logs etc) on the auction house.

Just from an aesthetic point of view, I can’t be the only person who thinks that something really needs to be done to any crafting system where iron is worth more than mithril.

There are various reasons for the problem. Sure it starts with people spending less time in the low level zones than the high level zones, but the biggest reason is that ArenaNet decided for to make crafted Ascended items require annoying quantities of lower level mats.

Again, it seems bizarre to have a crafting system where I’m being stopped from making an Ascended item not because I lack Orichalcum or Elder Woods Logs gathered from the level 80 zones like Orr, but because I’m missing mats from the level 15-40 zones. Even though I’m grinding through this weirdness, I can fully understand why none of my friends have decided to go down this crafting hole that Anet has dug.

IndigoSundown.5419:

I’ve been dodging attacks since the BWE’s. Who knew I was doing it wrong all this time? I assumed, since I wasn’t taking damage, I was doing it right. Live ’n learn.

lol My guardian heals on dodges so I’ll keep spamming it

But maybe that was part of the reason ArenaNet put in the requirement? They may have been seeing the entire playerbase spamming dodges all the time when it wasn’t necessary and ArenaNet finally figured out that their players thought they were doing things right.

I’ve said before that a tutorial at the start of the game might have helped clear up things like usage of the dodge mechanic but perhaps this daily requirement will serve to show people now that the game is released.

@Melchiorum and @Aethena – I can see ArenaNet being worried that the new system plus laurels might be too much for people to figure out so they only released it piecemeal.

ArenaNet has historically let the community stumble around blindly rather than providing information about mechanics in a consistent and clear way. Speaking of which, I’m still waiting for someone to post somewhere about what’s in those crafting kits. There’s absolutely NO reason not to state what’s in them, any ‘mystery’ will vanish the second someone posts anything on the Internet so it’s pointless and annoying not to provide the information upfront.

AndrewSX.3794:

-split WvW and PvE culling settings. For wvw i might want to have maximum possible FPS, thus sacrificing graphics. In PvE i might prefer to see more fancy and shiny stuff. Re-doing all the setting everytime hopping in and out of wvw is incredibly annoying.

I like this idea. Doing WvW I would be willing to drop the graphics to the bare minimum to get the best performance but in PvE I don’t mind a drop in frames to make things look better.

There are many reasons to put mounts into the game but the OP’s example of using them in WvW to get to their friends is absolutely the wrong reason.

WvW is about territory control. It MUST take time to cross zones in WvW or else gaining territory is meaningless. You might as well just put people into a big line when they get into WvW and just fight.

Plus there always needs be a danger of getting ambushed when travelling in WvW. If you ever feel ‘safe’ getting to your friends then you’re missing the point of open world PvP. You should never feel safe travelling in WvW.

And getting ambushed in WvW is not griefing, it is part of the gameplay and tactics. If you can’t avoid getting ambushed by using knowledge of the terrain and choice of paths then you need to figure out which abilities and builds have movement/CC-breaks and equip those if your want to get around WvW. Customizing your builds is part of the game as well.

The time needed for troop movement has always been a critical factor in the history of human warfare. Wars have been won or lost because troops were or were not able to get where they were needed, or they were ambushed on the way.

This is reflected in our games of strategy as well. Look at chess, each piece has limitations in how they can move and the more powerful pieces move further.

Giving significantly better movement to players with mounts in WvW would unbalance all the effort ArenaNet has made to make WvW approachable. It would be such a major advantage that no one would bother going into WvW until they had attained mounts. And that goes against ArenaNet basic design philosophy that players don’t need to grind levels to enjoy the game, they should be able to have fun (including WvW) from the start.

Interesting concept. But allowing any kind of player-controlled content in a game should always be done very cautiously.

For example, what came immediately to my mind was how this could be exploited by gold farmers who could use such geocaching as a method of exchanging items of value that would fly under the radar of mail exchanges. There would be a risk that someone else might find the items being illegally traded but using appropriately out of the way areas could result in a ready system for illicit transactions that would be impossible for GMs to tell if someone is illegally trading items or simply finding them in a legitimate fashion.

(That could lead to some rather unique consequences. There could be regions in Tyria that people start to recognize as the ‘bad parts’ of the world where the gold farmers hold their business, get raided by GMs, then set up shop in a new location. Just like real life!)

Still the idea of geocaching is interesting. There just needs to be solutions offered for the griefers, because they will always be the main issue with fun ideas like this.

Well said ArenaNet. Welcome to the world of online, open world PvP. Past games like DOAC had this same issue in the past, upcoming games like Planetside 2 will have this same issue in the future.

Open world PvP isn’t about fair or balanced. It’s about unpredictable chaos. Getting rolled by a bigger zerg isn’t fair but it’s part of open world gameplay. That kind of organic imbalance can’t avoided unless you start to exert control over players with restrictions. Fair and balanced can be found in the structured PvP matches where players are restricted to rules like in a sport match. Open world PvP isn’t like that and that’s what makes it a completely different experience.

That’s not to say there aren’t some interesting suggestions here. I do like the ones that recommend killing players should give more weight/reward in the standings. Killing players should always be the main goal in PvP and systems that encourage that seem sensible.

Amadan.9451:

save/load/respec multiple builds for free

I’d be happy with simply having the ability to save Trait/Utility builds

kishter.9578:

Travel for free to LA can be so amazing.

I really don’t know why they don’t do this. You already can achieve free travel to LA by going through Heart of the Mists so why not just make it a single step rather than two?

Henchies for dungeons.

Henchmen were intended to serve the purpose of allowing dungeons to be run with less than a full group, so I would rather see scaling for the dungeons to allow people to play them with whatever size group (from 1 to 5) they have.

The NPC AI is better in GW2 than in GW1 (which is to say GW2’s NPCs aren’t insane, suicidal monkeys intent on aggo-ing every mob in the zone) but I would prefer to minimize NPC reliance.

Single player games offer difficulty scaling, I don’t know why MMOs have not embraced it as well. Rewards could be adjusted so you get more the higher the difficulty or less if you just want to relax and see the content. Heck, GW2 already does this on a small scale with Story and Explorer modes or the FotM levels.

I think the human areas in vanilla WoW had the best designed zones I’ve ever seen in any MMO. The progression from the Northshire Abbey to Goldshire/Elwynn to Westfall (or Redshire) to Darkshire was just brilliant. In particular the build up of the Defias storyline where clues about the Defias plot are slowly revealed by exploring the zones (not just talking to NPCs) and culminating in the Deadmines dungeon was superb. (Now the Horde zones on the other hand, bleah lol)

I would be less interested in greater organization for the GW2 zones and more interested in seeing storylines that focused on the zones. This has already been done well in other MMOs like WoW and CoH. Currently in GW2, we do tasks for Heart NPCs and those are fun as we learn their stories but their stories seem independent of each other or only loosely connected at best. There doesn’t seem to be any overarching, focused story for each zone.

Perhaps that system wouldn’t work as well with GW2 because we’re supposed to run around exploring. Maybe instead of our personal story sending us all over the world, future chapters could go more in depth in the various zones?

We could explore more details about the NPCs and settings even in low level areas like Diessa or Wayfarer Hills. I know I would love to see a personal storyline focused on the Lupikids (Google them )

Halorin.1398:

I would vote that town clothes be added to the wardrobe pool as separate skins. They are already individualized items now. A lot of people enjoy mixing and matching town clothes and also would like to wear town clothes in combat. Without knowing the technical hurdles involved, I believe that keeping them as individualized items is the best compromise to satisfy the largest quantity of players.

As someone who has paid real money for some of the town clothes, I am disappointed at this change and reduction of enjoyment in my financial investment. To me, this is poor business practice and makes me hesitant of investing financially going forward.

Agreed and signed.

I really hope this is just a misunderstanding on how the new system will be implemented. I can’t believe ArenaNet would not think that players wouldn’t want to utilize and mix and match town clothes as much as gear skins.

Zayd Akira.1942:

I think Scarlet is a chronomancer.
It would explain all her time references in the riddle, and why she teleports all over the place without the mesmer butterflies.

Now this is another very cool theory! Perhaps one of Corporal Bane’s squad that has gone rogue (and crazy)?

I’m hoping for a Livia appearance, either as Scarlet or in a heroically dramatic entrance.

I like the lore as much as anyone but I also like getting a laugh when I play. There are some funny names here.

Graack.2103:

This is a critical feature of the games community-based support software. Please fix it.

I cannot agree with you more. But it has been over 2 years, I doubt we will ever see it fixed.

ArenaNet really should just take down the Search function option rather than keeping that thing up as if it were something useful or even functional.

Removing it would insure that people know they need to use Google or Bing or standard search engines to find anything on these forums.

Stuffed toy AND a digital mini-pet? I like the way you think minikiller!

Quaggan baby plushes are in the “shut up and take my money” territory.
’nuff said :P

An official version of THIS is what ArenaNet should be working on

http://koreena.deviantart.com/art/Quaggan-backpack-318181693

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Trahearne: You’ve been the primary focus of these attacks so far, but it’s clear that I am the real target.
<Player Name>: That fits. If you can’t trust me, or I’m dead, you lose your second-in-command. It makes you and the Pact more vulnerable.

. . . sorry, that’d be my conclusion as well. Get rid of the Player Character and the Pact can’t survive. After all, we’re the thing that makes it actually work

No, this text says the Pact is more ‘vulnerable’ if our character is removed not “The Pact can’t possibly hold together” if our character is removed. We’re given no evidence at this point in the PS that Trahearne will have any problems finding another flunky if our characters completely vanished.

This said, I will say that I just finished the Arah dungeon and saw the finale of the PS. I became a bit more accepting of Trahearne when he steps out of the way and lets our character and Destiny’s Edge take on Zhaitan (Being forced to do it with four other player is another issue for another thread)

Still I agree with other people that Destiny’s Edge would have been better in the role of leading the story. I especially agree with ammayhem.5962’s comments that introducing a main character halfway in a story is not an effective thing to do.

redslion.9675:

And well, seeing how the whole Southsun affair went, I fear the whole game tends to avoid moral dilemmas. There is always the obvious “right thing” to do, and no reason not to do it. Seriously, I’m starting to fear going out of the Mists. My character’s story feels so lame I’m sad when my toon wins a battle.

I think the real problem is the lack of a good VILLAIN in the stories so far. The Elder Dragons and their mindless minions are about as interesting as an animal/force of nature. We’re only told they’re evil ‘just because’. They might as well just wear black hats like silent movie bad guys for all the motivation we know of them.

Canach isn’t much better. He’s yet another Secondborn sylari with a chip on his shoulder. We’ve seen this before and it worked with the Nightmare Court but a sylvari trying to prove himself to the Pale Tree by becoming a capitalist is pretty weird. And not really something most people will feel any real empathy toward especially given how badly Canach always seems to screw up.

Because empathy is CRITICAL for a villain. You need to understand their motivations and goals even if you don’t agree with their means. You need to understand their fears and hopes and even see how you might have ended up in their shoes if things were different. I don’t think most people could image doing anything that Canach has done and that’s a problem with understanding him as a villain.

You brought up Lex Luthor in your post. Now there is a villain. We understand Lex’s xenophobic fear of an all-powerful alien and we’re not proud of that part of ourselves, but we know we share that with him. And we even have to admire how a mere human would dare to take on someone like Superman. We don’t agree with his actions, but there is something in Lex Luthor for people to understand and empathize. We need to see some of that in GW2’s villains in the Living and Personal Story.

I would like to say that I agree with the OP, it would be nice if the ascended armor had all the stat combos.

BobbyStein.2315:

Part of the issue here is that content that bleeds from one release to another doesn’t automatically have an “owner” in terms of which team builds it and/or maintains due to where it falls in the build schedule. That stated, Steven Waller, Angel, and I have been working with folks to bridge releases with this sort of lore-building stuff.

Expect more of that in the next few releases, and by all means I would encourage you and others to let us know how you feel about it.

Part of the problem is that we have been hearing that things are going to be revealed for such a long time. There have been promises for months that things in the story would be revealed. Flame and Frost started in January, we are finally learning that Scarlet was behind that and we still haven’t learned how she was behind it, how she got the alliances to do what she wants and why she is doing it.

We should have learned about Scarlet’s involvement months ago rather than having her spring up out of nowhere, much like the Eye and Mouth of Zhaitan PS bosses who we never hear anything about until right before we’re supposed to fight them. A good villain needs time to be developed and there has been too much time spent in the LS being mysterious, rather than telling the story.

Players like mysteries but there is a point where it starts to feel like things are being strung along. We past that point in the LS a while ago IMO. Things need to be explained because as long as everything is a mystery there is no development in the story. It’s just a black box throwing out seemingly disconnected and random events that are making players complain.

Some big upcoming reveal that explains everything will not make up for nearly a year of being strung along. If anything such a reveal will seem overly abrupt and quick, just like Scarlet’s appearance, just like the appearance of the Eye and Mouth of Zhaitan. Tell the players the story rather than hiding it from them.

As for continuity, it was nice to see Majory and Lady Kasmeer show up again. NPCs like these and Rox and Braham are really a good way to provide a sense of connection between updates. (I kind of want to see what happens to Braham’s love life lol)

Just make certain that the NPCs do not start to outshine the player characters. The NPCs should always be the ones in need of help or advice or assistance not just ordering players around to do a bunch of tasks. The lore/story should alwaysbe emphasizing that the player characters are not throw-away minions that could be just as easily replaced by someone else (which is difficult since that is how an MMO does function).

Another way to put it would be to think what would happen if the players just gave up and didn’t help the NPCs. Is there a sense that things would fail (even though we all know it won’t)? Or is the sense that the NPCs could do the job fine without them.

Rox and Braham were particularly good in this role being novices. Queen Jennah is usually so deep in problems that she works well in this regard too.

It would be nice for the other world leaders to directly enlist the aid of the players in the LS. Rytlock is fine but why haven’t we talked to Smodur the Unflinching (and earned his debt of gratitude by now) or been contacted by the Asuran Council? These well-known NPCs have been established by the lore and they should be used to approach the player characters with whatever desperate needs they have which only the characters can help to solve.

Very interesting thread and really great to see the Devs responding in such detail!

It is great to hear our character may soon have a voice, I think it will add considerably to the cinematic scenes.

Braham: Hey there.
Me: Hi, how are you doing?
Braham: Did you… just talk?

Followed by even more hilarity

Thank you for that

It is hard to write a story focused around a character for an MMO. Regarding the OP’s concerns, I don’t mind the current batch of NPCs because I think the story has done a decent job pointing out that they need the player character. Rox and Braham were just rookies when we met them, I think the story should continue show that they view the player as their mentor. Kasmeer and Majorie might bring up the reminder that they never would have met without the player. Perhaps they have a quarrel and we have to help mend things up. The player needs to continue to be the "glue* for this group. Never, ever show this bunch doing things as a group without the player.

Essentially, I’m saying it is critical never to lose the idea that the NPCs need the player. Don’t miss a chance to bring this up. And don’t lose it in the story.

In contrast, people have mentioned how our player is called the ‘Commander’ in the PS, I never got the sense my character was commanding anything in the Personal Story. My character was a lackey being told what to do. It’s shoved in our faces what an expert Trahearne is from the moment we meet – he already has Pact connections and all this knowledge of Orr. Our characters just serving as an instrument to do damage, replaceable by any other. We see the future showing he’s going to unite the Pact and we don’t see a our character by his side in that vision. We don’t get the magic sword and we just get to watch as the NPC we’ve been repeatedly told is more dedicated, more knowledgeable and more destined than our characters could ever be fulfill that destiny. Take our character out of the story and it ends the same.

The Destiny’s Edge story was better since it showed our character serving to bring them together. Again acting like a glue for them. This was helpful, of course, since the player character could talk in the cinematics. It was a little disappointing in the end that we weren’t made an honorary member of Destiny’s Edge, our character still didn’t rate enough to be part of the cool club, I guess.

The introduction of the new batch of NPCs brings a group who are very competent but they’re not already famous and renown. That made them seem to need the help of the player character. That gives us a sense of investment that has been lacking IMO. A hero should be needed, not just be something to point at the next boss mob. I really hope ArenaNet can keep that sense as the story continues and Rox and the other continue to develop and grow.

One last thing I have to add, I really hope you guys have a good villain planned for Season 2. A story is only as good as the villain (and having yet another nutso sylvari that we have to take out in this beginning chapter was not a strong example of one. That mysterious Master of “Peace” guy on the other hand….hmmmm)

Cool start of for the comic Those bunnies are hardcore!

Looking forward to seeing more!

The watchknights remind me of the robot from the classic silent movie ‘Metropolis’ but with more steam-punk crossed with a modernized design.

Fungalfoot.7213:

They remind me of Baroque sculptures and I find them very pleasing to the eye. But no, I can’t say they evoke any desire. Guess I’m just not into automatons.

There is something Baroque about them too. They seem like they were designed to be striking. I was surprised to see normal sized ones, I thought it would be more imposing if they were all bigger than norn.