Guild Wars 2

Someone above has the answer. If I don’t need mentoring, Why shouldn’t I be able to turn the presence (of ALL or specific tags) on the map, off? That seems like the simple solution. Commander tags in WVW should be static but I would love to tag up with my own little group in PVE and not have people telling me to “tag down” for whatever reason.

Personally, I loved Prophecies. Specifically, the pre-searing autumn feel transitioning into the war. I thought that was done very well.
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Now, after 3 years of “autumn” with a few “beyond the wall” like bosses… This dren just got real.
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I am very happy with the new content. There will always be people that brag about how fast they can complete the new maps but as long as the game as a whole escapes them, they will never be happy.
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To be honest I was no longer excited with the original maps. However… finally putting the nail in the coffin of “quests” in exchange for events and story episodes is brilliant. Even though I still find myself wandering around looking for what needs to be done , I eventually figured it out. I did in Silverwastes… and it felt good not to be led around like a donkey giving children rides at a petting zoo.
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Good job Arenanet. I have actually been awaiting the release of B’n’S here in NA but HoT has pushed that to the back burner. I like a good story in my game and everything since Drytop makes me feel like I am actually part of the story.
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So now what would I like to see.
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1) Home instances should be more functional. When asked if he was capable of destroying “Earth” a wise, blue superhero said " Egad. I hope not. That’s where I keep all my stuff." This is where our personal bank (and closet) should be. In addition to being able to access it through crafting stations of course. The current concept of keeping my armor, toys, consumables etc. in a bank vault while my 300 gold and 20+ different types of currencies are kept in my wallet is a little backwards. The home instance has always been under utilized in my mind and since seeing what you have done with guild halls, the same mechanic could be used for home now. I will share my ideas on the home instance in another post.
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2) Clothing. Since the release of GW2 I have been hearing a lot about the need for a money drain off. OUTFITS people… outfits. And not just because the game already has the alt name fashion wars. During character creation, each toon chooses Charm, Dignity or Ferocity. Clothing could be made to enhance these 3 attributes, like light, medium or heavy armor. There are already events in the stories where diplomacy plays a part. There can now be clothing stores. Clothing worn by NPC’s could be purchased for gold. Community content contests for inclusion of their designs (this alone would attract 20% of “The Sims” players) The stats don’t have to be complicated and shouldn’t anything beyond giving a charming person a 10% 20% or 30% bonus to diplomacy when wearing a charming outfit. Gem store outfits could have an adjustable stat and a dignified person wearing a charming outfit would have a -10% bonus. They fit in a slot over top of armor so there is no mod needed to the game engine with regards to stat cue-ing. So far, all diplomatic events are instance based. The game could simply ignore the stats that the instance doesn’t use.
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3) Now that there is a guild game mechanic, it can be slid into home instances and individual buildings. Well not the whole guild experience but, definitely, parts of it can. Build a tavern in your home instance and all the other upgrade business owners come and hang out until you supply them with their start-up mats. Same in Queensdale. Someone could sponsor a business and once or twice per week, it will be attacked by centaurs or bandits. If it gets defended then great. If not then someone else can sponsor the store owner… who can be found drowning his sorrows at the local pub.
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I guess what I would really like to see is a sandbox game. But I know that is unrealistic with how GW2 is set up. But even though we can’t actually own and develop our own property, we can make parts of the world map look like it is owned and developed.
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Having mini games seems to be what Guild Wars does. I personally don’t give a rats patootie about having an economy in an adventure game but there are people that like this TRUMP mini game better than the rest of GW2.
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It is a little far fetched to think there could be an entire Social/diplomacy/fashion/business aspect to the game, and I would not likely play it, but it would get my wife to play.

I have a 4 core / 4 thread i5 6600k.
-No Hi-Res Character Textures
-Low/Med only for Textures

Everything looks great and moves smoothly but I can’t help wondering what I am missing

No matter how powerful any elite skill is, giving it a 4 minute recharge means it is forgotten as a viable skill. It seems that Anet is so scared of recreating the Ursan superpower that they are not willing to put thought into making this skill something that could be used in a build.

2 minutes is still too long for me to use, but others might. If you must leave it at 4 minutes, reduce the recharge times of the form’s skills so they can be used 3-4 times each (yes all 5 skills). If a fight is going on for 4 minutes, 30 sec of enhancements isn’t going to break the feel of the game. Other Elites that have outrageous recharge times are mostly passive. Players get good by practice. How does one master a group of skills that they can use for 30 seconds every 4 minutes. too much work for awesome players, too complicated for average players. I found this true of the old Guardians Elite Tombs of Wrath/Courage as well.

Another option would be to give the Norn forms a static bonus (no weapon stats), a single use for each skill that it would make this Elite like a chain skill that could be timed by the player. Once the player has completed the chain (or used all 5 skills once), they revert back to Norn form. Then reduce the recharge to 2 minutes. This option could really open up the playing field for original feeling Norn forms. For example, Leopard could charge to a range between 400-300, pounce, before the knockback takes effect use growl (which will paralyze for .5 seconds and negate knockback) and Frenzy could do x3 power to paralyzed foes. This is like a rend effect that is devastating once every 2 minutes and that is dependent on the chain. If this whole chain is executed in stealth there could add the 4x precision bonus. Or they could just stealth away after the attack. All 5 skills could be used once on their own but are meant to be used as a single attack.

It also appears that the wiki entry makes these forms look more appealing than they are. Sure, Bear gets 30k of life on top of our current health (and keeps the Vitality of any equipped weapons) but there is no evidence that Leopard gets the listed +3000 precision to its attacks. When I first tried all the forms I never felt they were deserving of elite status. After 2 years I decided to really see if I could make them work which led to me crunching the numbers and finding that these skills seem underpowered for the stats listed on the wiki.

All around, The forms get used because they are a cool concept… but are soon forgotten. I personally would never have a skill that took 4 minutes to recharge in a MMORPG that I created. Skills that remain offline for more than a minute are for real time strategy games like Age of Empires.

I like the idea of mystic forging “levelers” using map completion trophies. WvW and PvP both scale you to 80 so I am not so keen on making those part of the forge price.
It should be PvE only. Using dungeon rewards is fine but not too steep a price. This aspect of the game is not to demonstrate skill but to alleviate monotony. The Gift of Exploration is a pretty steep price already, but necessary for something like this.
1 Gift of exploration
1 Bloodstone Shard
1 Obsidian Geode (100k Karma ONLY at any temple purchased by a level 80 character)
1 Laurel crown (25 Laurels)
the gift, skill points, Karma and Laurels are all currencies that require dedicated playing with no way to shortcut except skill scrolls and tomes… which are directly involved with leveling anyway.

Transferring experience directly to another character is too easy but there should definitely be a way to “bank” time spent playing, regardless of their ability. We can already buy our levels up through crafting so any player with above average ability can raise the gold needed to level a character in a few days of power playing.

If this happens, it should be for the players that log on often, do their dailies and monthlies, spends an hour or so escorting Dolyaks or doing other events and completes exploring the map. Then if they decide to make another character, it can start at 80. If they want another lvl80 they can do map completion again faster with the new character, with out having to change weapons and armor every 5-10 levels.

Making the cost of this too steep would just add a mechanic that no one would ever use.

I think every year the experience scrolls should cover the next spread of levels. This year 20-40. next year 40-60 etc. People who play for 5 years deserve a method of creating a lvl 80 toon without the work.

Skill point scrolls (both the single point and the 5 pointers) should all be soulbound or all be account bound. making this new 5 point scroll that we got for our b-day soulbound irks me. I wouldn’t have even thought of this if this form of currency was exactly what it implied… a characters skill level.

I have 10 toons and 5 piles of philosopher stones. I also have these new cake guns, 10 slot trick or treat bags etc. etc. etc. Saying they are soulbound to another character is not enough information. That entire sentence can be replaced, simply by the name of the toon it is soulbound to… like you use to do in GW1. I have 7 potions of young karka transformation and have no idea which toon they belong to and I have an entire bank tab full of stuff that can only be used by one specific toon.

I understand why some things are soulbound but they should be soulbound to “enter toon name here”.. not just simply “to another character”

I am a player of Guild Wars since day 2 of Prophecies. I point that out because I anticipated annual birthday gifts and therefore filled my character slots with toons on day1. I may have changed one or tow of them over the next day or two but I was intent on having all their birthdays close to the same day. This only applies to my first 5 character slots of course.

However, I have got my B-day gift for Rhubarb. The /age check reveals that she has played for 731 days (today being AUG 26) 365+366=731…fair enough. But 3 of the other toons that I created at the same time have almost 50 days between them and Rhubarb. I am 99.9% sure that there wasn’t more than a few days between 2 of those toons but my necromancer was the only name I carried over from my GW1 account. The first two toons I created was her and another that I migrated but soon after deleted the 2nd and never remade. I know that for sure because I was in a panic to get their names registered.

I would just question my own memory and forget about it if there were 5 days or less between them but this is over a month. I had finished the 1st segment of the personal story on all 5 toons by the end of the first month. (one of the toons is only 15 days behind Rhubarb)

Something about the birthday machine is wonkie. I know I will eventually get each of my toons b-day prezzies but if something else is implemented in GW2 that is B-day dependant, I don’t want to be submitting a 10 year old support ticket.

Living Story is a success. Your last feature pack was a success. I even liked the way you built up the last feature pack.

However..

3 weeks? We are only on day 2 and I am bummed that I have to hear about this for almost a month. Any longer than 10 days and I feel like I am being “conditioned” for something I am not going to like. All the while patting yourselves on the back (which I think ArenaNet deserves but this feels like begging).

There is great power in anticipation, there is also a point where the heart grows fungus. If you promise new content every 14 days then you should deliver. If you need more time to make the story amazing promise every 20 days.

I am loving the new content for LS 2nd season but blaming a Feature pack for a break, then taking 21 days to build it up is a hic-cup in the momentum.

I couldn’t agree with this more. You want another gold sink in the game? Alternate attire vendors. NPC’s in the game have to shop somewhere. Why not allow us to purchas NPC clothes? Have different levels of “couture” You could use the same meshes with different colors and textures and have remote sellers or even shops that wont let you in the door unless you are wearing no less than a level below their wares.

Town clothes are a sadly lacking development that ArenaNet could be perusing. This is just the tip of the iceberg. With a new Sims game coming in September, it would be awesome for the people returning to GW2 after getting bored of Simlish drama to have a functioning Sim’s element in the game. And for those that don’t like the idea, they can buy one outfit, attend the story parties and ignore this entire part of the game.

You have many different minigames, this one could be huge. ArenaNet is no stranger to incorporating the strengths of other games. Why ignore this.

I like having a dynamic IP that makes me authenticate every week or so.

BUT…

Does the login system forget all the old IP addresses I logged in from in the past. This extra security measure I thought I had may turn out to be a liability. How do I get your system to forget old IP addresses? Well at least for log-on purposes anyway.

Maybe there should be a limit of two or three Ip addresses retained if there is currently no system in place. Otherwise it defeats the purpose of authenticating after few hundred address changes.

Also. If this bandana is no longer available, Does it become an endless tonic or does it get a wardrobe slot?

Anyone heard from him lately? I have a character that wants to earn the bandana he gives for helping out with his tank in the Iron Marches.

Can you develop a way to have underwater legendary weapons displayed in cities?

Kraitin looks awesome and I would be willing to bet not being able to show them off is one of the reasons Carcharias sells for 44gold, Venom sells for 27 gold and Rage sells for 24…. the three cheapest precursors in the game.

Uhmm how many people do you think actually have legendaries? I have Kraitkin and am working on Rodgort. I had decided to end it after Rodgort but if legendaries turn into a black moa chick like quest I will re-purpose myself to get em all (even the 1.5 I already have) if each has a different story. I am good changing the whole development process.

…A convenience to other players that ask for help. Paying for waypoints is far more of a deterant to helping than is useful for anything in the game. I would be good with just having a free waypoint at each zone exit and get rid of the other 10 to 15 waypoints altogether. I have been trying to get past this aspect of the game but it is such an un-necessary element.

In GW1 many of us loved the trench coat mostly because it was first offered near the end of Nightfall. I am guessing that because of how well it was recieved, they went a little overboard with the coats/poofy skirts. I agree totally with the OP here. And while your at it, female footwear for med and hvy are too blocky.

Personally I think shoes and gloves should be transmutable for any of the three armor types. gender specific of course. Not the rest of the armor though. PvP and WvW still need to be able to recognize the main body armor type.

Brennus: whats the point if it is only capable of the same speed. I said as a stats bonus or pack animal and didn’t elaborate on the stats bonus part. Currently eles,thieves and rangers have a signet that grants 25% move as a passive skill. Mesmers are the only ones that dont have a unconditional speed boost. If mounts are limited to top toon speed then I don’t see why not.

RoyalPredator: We have already explored and walked the roads. That’s why waypoints should be free… to allow the freedom to go to where we need to go. If I could waypoint to anchorage for free, people doing Grenth would have my help more often. I was so much more helpful in GW1, I hate what this paying for waypoints is doing to the kind of gamer I am.

I have to agree with the “NO’s” on this one. It only takes me 45 minutes max to do this farming the Kessex west centaur circle. No great difficulty getting there, always lots of people to help. daily tasks are fine the way they are. Maybe a few more different tasks thrown into the pool they are drawn from.

I give two thumbs up for this entire post. lots of good ideas to replace the mystic toilet component of the creation process. No matter how you look at creating a legendary weapon… luck should have NOTHING to do with the process.

The only problem I have with mounts is world discovery. Waypoints need to be discovered before they can be accessed. Mounts can speed all over the world and trivialize the vastness of the world in the discovery stage of toon development.

I would love to see mounts as a “stats buff” or a pack animal. It’s not very realistic being able to carry 8 bags of swords and armor just because you spent gems to do it. Let me spend 600 gems on a burrow that doesn’t cast agro then 7 more bags that hooks on it’s saddle.

A pack animal could use any animal model in the game and not present a balance issue. These could be “sold for gold” only. Instead of paying 600 gems for a pack animal, you would get a “pack animal handlers license” and a basic burrow. if you want a better beast of burden it will gost you gold to buy a new one.

There are a million better money sinks than waypoints and armor repair.

Also. the feast itself may only last for 5 minutes but a feast of omnombars gives you the buff for 1 hour where the individual bars only last for 30 minutes.

Not sure if that is the norm with all feasts or not. This is the only feast I have got so far.

They announced that we will be able to pick which tasks we can do to get the daily reward. My judgement is that it is a good idea to do for the monthly tasks being as they are usually much bigger and requiring more time and effort doing something the person may not want to do. They did say the point of choosing our tasks is so we could play the game the way we want to.

Missing a daily because you don’t know anything about combo kills is not such a big deal. Missing a monthly because you had a bad experience with a dungeon pug and don’t do dungeons is a much greater slap in the face.

They should offer 8-10 tasks but only need to finish 5.

I think the system now is good. Anet should choose the daily tasks from a pool. If there is a task we don’t feel like doing then we miss one “laurel” no big deal.

However…

The monthly’s should allow more flexbility in what tasks we need to accomplish. I am so glad there are no fractals needed this month. I might actually finally get a monthly reward.

We are playing a game. I get too much reality paying for gas and insurance just so I can drive to work. I completely agree with the OP. There are so many other things they could tax/use as a money sink.

Waypoint costs and armor repairs are only here because you poeple who play other games are conditioned to accept it.

I am happy to admit that I am unwilling to evolve past having benefitted from Guild wars 1 not having these unreasonable burdens. But I am definately not cheap. I was happy to purchase 500 items from weaponsmith and salvage them away just to meet my monthly salvage requirements.

I don’t travel anymore because every time I see the cost of a waypoint, my blood boils. I haven’t played with my friends in two months because they are slowly clearing frostgorge and I am happily farming the tunnel in Cursed Lands so I can make money and not have to pay for waypoints or armor repairs.

Once they nurf tunnel farming, I will go back to playing GW1.

There are a few things I would do differently but on the whole, I love this game. It is a shame Anet punishes adventurers just because they include the Donald Trump side game. I have no problem with Anet catering to as many different gamer types as they can. but they need to keep the games seperate.

Every game with an economy has a broken economy. economies can never be fixed. The whole game behind an economy is how to exploit it. This is all the more reason to keep the economy and adventuring seperate.

When we get our “home” in our home instance we could get a closet and have to buy clothing from vendors, art and furniture to decorate. Allow us to pay gold for armor repair cannisters, 10s per cannister and make fewer armor repair guys that do it for free… because we are, after all, keeping them alive. Talk about getting something for free. In a logical setting NPC’s should pay us for keeping their homes and businesses safe. We shouldn’t have to rely on looting bad guys we kill. This type of economy is closer to what we really have but how fun would a game like that be?

“oh I’ll just donate that SPARK that I found in Jormags chest to a museum”

Make all waypoints within a zone free but cost 3s to use a waypoint in the next zone and an additional 3 silver for each zone you jump over. At least that way We can walk through the zone portal and waypoint to the next zone portal. A happy medium between instant travel and becoming desensitized to the size of the world and having to run from cursed shore to frost gorge and wasting an hour or so of your life. Anet may as well do this being as they are not “sinking” any money off those of us farming the tunnel or the west Kessex centaurs.

I have made this point before. A great many of us would be very happy playing this game without ANY economy. So for all you that say paying for waypoints and armor repair makes for a good economy, your views mean nothing to the other half of us that could care less about your precious economy.

I accept that Arenanet has decided to include a mini “Donald Trump” game with their new, extreamly feature rich, Guild Wars 2 adventure game but the only way this is going to be sucessful is if they keep the economy and the adventure seperate.

One of the developers once said that the death penalty was too punitive. In GW1 you would die, resurrect with 15% less health and energy (to a maximum of 60%less) and would have to run back to the event location.

Now, if you are defeated, you have to spend a minimum of 1s45c to resurrect and run back (with a reduced armor rating from damage) to a fully healed foe. Heaven forbid I should go down for the forth time and need to waypoint to a place close to a repair guy(2s50c) pay 6s to get fixed, then either spend another 2s50c to get back to the closest waypoint and still have to run for 1-4 minutes to get back to the event or run the entire way in about 20 to 25 minutes. There may be more waypoints in GW2 but the map is so much bigger that the running time is no different.

Anytime I read a person say the costs are reasonable, they are talking about 1s50c to get to the nearest waypoint. I am defeated, 1 cm away from a waypoint and 1s45c is reasonable? I am lvl 80 and I make about 1g adventuring per day. After 2 days I have enough to buy a single piece of exotic armor. As I am standing there admiring how cool I look in my new armor a guildie calls for help “insufficient funds cost 2s25c. you have 21c” then I have to go and sort through what crafting materials I can afford to part with then see if the TP is offering good price for whatever I have decided to sell… All this so I can go help another one of your paying customers.

I have friends that would say “come farm the tunnel with me, I make 2 gold an hour” not one of those friends are still playing.

When someone calls out in map chat for help, I will check how much coin I have. But I won’t even bother to look if a guildie calls for help in Fireheart rise when I am in Caladon Forest.

Guild Wars 1 had a great system and they tossed it out the window for the same crap they have in almost every other MMO on the market. Anet is saying they are stepping forward with innovation then go and drag this barbaric type of money drain into the game.

I want my foes to be in front of me. I get enough of fighting my own bad money skills in real life.

Suggestions:
-Do away with both repair costs and travel costs. Worked well in GW1
-100% exploration=$0 waypoint cost. (someone elses suggestion that I could force myself to except)
-2s for repair canisters that repair 1 armor piece each. Armor repair dude=free.
-5s for each zone crossed to get to your destination. Free travel within the same zone.
-charge 5% of all coin on all toons and in bank. 200g in your bank, 10 gold to nearest waypoint. People with more than 100 gold just stand around the TP anyways. This way rich people can be miserable too. Why should they miss out on this element of the game.

One other thing I read from a developer was about underwater combat. When we jump in the water the breathing apparatus automatically equipts… because it is no fun worring about breathing while fighting or exploring. Thinking about money while fighting or exploring is exactly the same kind of “no fun”

One person on guru accused me of wanting no opposition which would make the game boring. Who buys an adventure game to rush out and challenge financial burdens.

I am not asking for more drops or more money. I just want you to stop taking the money I do have from me just so I can go on playing your game. If you need a philosophical reason to justify dumping waypoint/armor repair dude costs… Think of the reason why pay once/free MMOs have almost completely wiped out the monthly subscription model. We want to choose how we spend our money. With travel and armor repair, there is no choice. Check my PayPal history with you. I am not whining about this because I am cheap.

I am not just opposed to the high cost travel and armor repair, I am opposed to a cost at all. There is NO good reason for it and lots of good reasons against it.