Guild Wars 2

I have rescued all Seraph soldiers outside of Fort Salma per Belinda’s request, and successfully escorted them back to the gate/wall. In Dulfy’s video, the achievement awards just outside the gate. I get nada.

Yes, I have unlocked the achievements for this arc (by completing a first play-through). The achievement is simply broken. I have reported in-game twice, months apart. I have come to the forums 1) to see if fellow players can verifty, and 2) for improved visibility beyond the black hole that is bug submission. I can’t imagine it’s a difficult bug to reproduce, but here we are. Months have passed and I cannot complete the Entanglement achievements, which is just sort of making me not log in/progress with the story.

Any helpful insight (from anyone) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

OP, the data is only as good as its parameters.

Does the data account for RP activities? The RP community is, generally speaking, an extremely loyal group of players. These are the people still playing GW1, a large portion of the gamers still paying their monthly sub to WoW even as the game sheds hundreds of thousands of accounts per quarter. Does the data account for them? Then how can decisions reflect their purchasing power? Megaserver scattered these communities. My own guild no longer logs in; I struggle to do so.

How about the digital tourists? The people who love to walk around, explore, take “photos” of their journey across Tyria. Does the data account for their preferred method of enjoying the game? Surely, these people buy gems too. How does the data reflect their concerns, with regard to a first person camera for instance?

I agree with you; if the game is not delivering the experience you came for, you should not support development of a game that has no interest in your stated desires/modes of play.

Data is good. But data is only as strong as its parameters. I find ArenaNet’s parameters to be lacking, and the frequency of my time in game shows a direct correlation. If one of the mystery features to be revealed for the upcoming Feature Pack doesn’t have anything for me, then I will be moving on. Hopefully, that will at least register a blip in their vaunted data.

Yargesh.4965:

I really agree with this. People are upset sure but they are coming across as throwing a hissy fit in public so mom and dad get embarrassed and give in to threats. Sorry guys won’t happen.

Some of the hissy fits are regarding features that mom and dad mentioned more than a year ago. Precursor crafting has elicited the exact same response in August 2014 as it did in the second quarter of 2013. “We are aware that this is a desired feature; we can’t say anything.” At some point, you begin to feel like a rube for believing mom and dad in the first place.

Other than that, the explanations given were utterly insufficient. First-person camera has long been requested, but apparently it doesn’t work with combat. Uh, yeah. We know that. Can we have it anyway and just toggle back to third person for combat. I mean, this isn’t a new feature. The mechanism ALREADY EXISTS in the dev build. Can ArenaNet just trust me to toggle the camera as needed?

The SAB stuff? Yeah, it smacks of a hissy—but I get it. It’s beloved content, and again the explanation is really lacking.

Mostly, I am sick to death of being told “we know you want this feature; it’s technically feasible—but no, and erm, yeah we can’t talk about it.” The coy routine is getting real old.

I’m losing faith.

First was the scattering of the RP community by megaserver. I cannot overstate how much that harmed my relationship with this game. The rest of my guild just flat doesn’t log in now, and I’ve struggled to do so. (To any dev with the ability and desire to do so, check my log-ins since March compared with the year prior…)

Now, we are told that we could have a first-person perspective camera, but well it doesn’t really work with the combat. A fair point. But who the hell ever said they wanted a 1P camera for combat? It’s for immersion, travel, wandering around. Now I now you can’t charge gems for screenshots, but I would absolutely spend more time in-game if this feature was implemented. More time in game means I’m more likely to spend $ on gems, yes? …I don’t even know how to respond to that rationale. I’m not stupid. I am willing and able to toggle the camera. This is literally (as in the actual literal meaning of “literally”) mind-boggling to me.

No ability to tag as RP for megaserver filtering
the restrictive camera perspective/FOV
seeming abandonment of SAB and precursor crafting
…these are a few my least favorite things. They are reasons I will be moving on. (Check my log in; I’m not blowing smoke.)

And if I hear ONE more “we are aware that this feature is desired, but we can’t talk about it, check back in a year for the same answer”…I’m gonna spew. God, I am so angry right now.

Trade post flipping—the eternal topic.

Go outside, go on a date, go for a run, travel, learn something new, read a book, go to a bar, stay in and watch Anthony Bourdain make metaphors out of Gwenyth Paltrow’s colon after a three month juice cleanse (yup). Life is too short to get your knickers in a twist over a virtual game economy that’ll be a footnote in 10 years.

My point: TP flipping is here, it works in the company’s interest (gems to gold) and a segment of the players get their jollies doing it. I find it to be a bit too Ferengi for my tastes, but hey, whatevs.

Me? I’d rather throw $10 at ANet for ~100 gold than spend hours flipping crap. I’m not into the TP meta.

ANet’s resident economist, has repeatedly stated that he finds the economy to be healthy. His thoughts are very likely ANet’s thoughts. This is not a suggestion that will be implemented.

Have fun, and stop the second it stops being fun.

Guys, guys…if the lack of new “living” world content is driving you nuts, do what I did: go play an actual RPG. My Steam library is overflowing with a backlog of goodness. I almost forgot what it felt like to play a cohesive story that didn’t require kittenloads of grind. And it feels GOOOOOOOD!

If Saturday morning cartoon vibes turn you off, try the Witcher series.
If your exploration itch isn’t being scratched, Oblivion or Skyrim will ease your troubles.
Need to flex your mad skills, Demon’s/Dark Souls will prove what a bad kitten you are!

If your getting burned out in Guild Wars 2, it’s healthy to go be somewhere else for a while. It’s not like you’ll be wasting your monthly sub if you go.

Dal Grimm.8475:

Star Ace.5207:

I don’t struggle, I usually just roleplay alone or even with unknowns hoping they will roleplay back. I have NEVER since headstart been griefed or mocked on AR for role-playing my characters. Is Anvil Rock anything close to a RP server? Many players don’t even do PvE there, which is my main focus in the game. I do PvE as my own character’s little quests, and am excited (unlike many) with open world PvE and events. Nothing prohibits me from role playing in AR. Nothing shall prohibit me from roleplaying in whatever map I end up in the upcoming mega-server-roleplayers roleplay no matter what, even without this game’s beautiful graphics, (arguably) skins, and scenery.

That’s what I was saying. In my mind the Mega server would increase the chances of Rp’ing and getting a favorable response.

Roleplaying in your head is not the same as a dynamic community of like-minded players. I appreciate what you’re saying, but it’s not the same.

To clarify, (concerns about server identity being trashed aside) the RPers are simply worried about being able to find each other. From what we have been told it does not appear that mega server will be able to group this community because there is no metric by which to do so.

The closest “flag” is being on one of the unofficial RP servers. But a lot of people used to guest over. Unless something changes, those people are S.O.L.

The mega server breaks so much to fill some empty maps: server identity gone, asinine event schedules in a “living” world, breaking up of informal communities that were not accounted for by the higher ups.

All people are asking for is a wee bit of control in how the mega server will place them…beyond original home server and guild. (I swear, that “guild up” comment by Colin is so ignorant of this community and how it functions. I know he meant well…)

The oft-mentioned flag system would be a welcome olive branch and soothe a lot of nerves.

constantLogic.3486:

A couple of days and some pages go by without any address to the questions and concerns people have raised, anet? You’re dropping the ball here. You shouldn’t just be silent on this issue like you have been on so many others. This change doesn’t even affect me except for your forced double-toll wps (how can you even justify that, really?) and yet I see the validity of the resentment here. The silence is pretty deafening.

Lord Kuru.3685:

It’s completely obvious that many (most?) people have limited and set playtimes and thus by the new schedule they would always see some bosses and never others.

It’s really surprising that Anet didn’t seem to realize this — it shows how little thinking and effort they put into this implementation. Or maybe they knew, but just don’t care?

“I’m very glad and excited with your overwhelming responses regarding the MegaServer system.” <— Your official response

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Update-on-the-MegaServer-roll-out-plan/page/3#post3862262

Asmodeus.5782:

“Stability, income”. What has the gaming devolved to.

Efficiency in service to the ultimate dragon: Grindasaurous Rex. All bow your heads.

Astralporing.1957:

Samuel Loretan.8601:

I’m very glad and excited with your overwhelming responses regarding the MegaServer system.

This is likely the first time i see someone being “excited and glad” that the response to their work was heavily negative. The whole message seems as if it was prepared beforehand, and the person writing it didn’t read even a single post on the feedback thread.

Haha, it’s the same feeling I get when I write to a senator. “This NSA thing has me a little worried, Senator.” “Thank you for writing! Yes, the NSA is a wonderful agency.”

Hmmm. I don’t like this. I understand the reasoning for MegaServer. But the lack of control or some ability to skew where I’m placed is a deal breaker. Especially given that the metrics for determining placement are locked away in a black box.

Little bit of control and some transparency, and I’m on board with GW2 for the long haul. Otherwise, no one is forcing me to be here, I ’spose.

Lambent.6375:

Based on this post, most likely.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Feedback-Questions-MegaServer/page/8#post3848841

What I take away from that post is that the home world you chose on character creation is one of the primary metrics that MegaServer will use. When it mentions placing you with people that share your interests or goals…that’s fairly ambiguous.

The way I used to pair up with people that shared my interests and goals was by guesting to a specific server. I’m simply wondering if I will be able to skew the MegaServer’s metrics by guesting. In that way, I can trick the MegaServer into placing me with people that are not on my home server.

I appreciate the response. I’m still looking for an unambiguous answer to the question: will guesting exist with the MegaServer?

A server is…a server. If the PvE portion of that identity is being stripped away, then the OP makes a valid point. PvE was the “home base” from which the pool of WvW players was drawn. At least, that’s how I always looked at it.

Can we get an answer on this: will guesting exist with the MegaServer? Please. A yes/no.

DragoTheWise.7256:

I just finished watching it. There wasn’t anything in the Ready Up concering RPers . It was focused mainly around PvE, WvW, and sPvP. Granted, they did announce in a post that they are going to be doing maps that have consistent low population and work their was to maps with higher population.

Ah. Was there any mention of guesting?

zwierz.9012:

Well said! also, looks like Devs may have heard and listened, things may be looking up.

Hey, zweirz—was there good news in the Ready Up or something? I missed it.

perilisk.1874:

Psientist.6437:

Based on my understanding of the MegaServer (all hail!), no one will earn influence in the zones being tested. This may lead to players actively avoiding low population zones. I understand the need to test the MegaServer feature before implementing mechanics that are based on the MegaServer, leaves you in a chicken and the egg situation.

Where did you hear that people wouldn’t earn influence in MegaServer maps?

I second. Source?

AcidicVision.5498:

pulseunit.8296:

This feels a bit like tearing down St Paul’s Cathedral and replacing it with a Christian Processing Mega-Facility.

Sure you get to process a lot more Christians, a lot more efficiently but you can’t quantify what you have lost. So it’s impossible to argue against, it happens, we all deal with it and two years later no-one can remember what it was like before.

Stupid progress.

This assumes people are so apathetic towards the changes that they stick around for two years. This is a consumer market. People demonstrate displeasure with their wallets. There happen to be two new high-profile contenders for our money.

And as someone noted in a meeting I was in last night “its really easy to spend more for gems in a month or three months than you would on three months of time in a sub game. This is the first time a subscription could end up saving me money”.

This just makes no sense at all unless ANet just really really misunderstand player needs. In which case we are here to bounce these sort of drastic ideas off of. Does this just demonstrate to us that the CDI is all bread and circuses?

Holy kitten! I’d gotten so used to my monthly gem allotment that I hadn’t really considered that a sub would actually save me money! Well, hell—since the communities I chose are being overruled by communities chose for me by mega server… I’ll be right back. Hitting up Amazon and some review sites.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Fror.2163:

Yet, the other news of yesterday said that “someday you’ll simply have one guild!” What is this I don’t even.

Dont take phrases out of context just to suit your argument, especially when they’re THIS out of context. What you quoted means nothing as far as BEING in one guild. Instead, it applies to the fact that large multi-server guilds are shafted as far as guild BENEFITS go.

Don’t look for malicious self-serving arguments where there might be none. It seems like he simply misunderstood the blog.

Some guilds are spread across multiple servers. The members have no way to interact with each other, and the influence they earn is restricted to a specific guild chapter on a specific server. What ANet is saying is that eventually these different chapters of the same guild will be able to merge into one guild.

Aidan Savage.2078:

ExAstris.8527:

No server…no guesting.

Corrected for what you’re actually trying to mean, not what you’re saying, even if it’s not correct. If there was no bearing at all assigned to your choice of server, all of your implications would be accurate. However, by the fact that they do place weighted values on server, the logical conclusion, combined with the fact that there is no statement regarding the status of guesting (no statement does not equate “we’re removing it” either), if I were to guest to TC for the purpose of joining RPers, there’s higher odds of that happening than if I simply logged into the game with my home server. Outside of WvW, which I’ve never tested to figure out if it’s accurate as it’s no bearing on this particular topic, your guested server takes the place of your home server from the moment you tell the game you’re guesting to it and log in to the moment you hit log out, character select, or exit to desktop.

To quote a section of the blog that elaborates more on what you yourself quoted:

The megaserver system is a weighted load balancer for players. It aggregates data about you, like your party, guild, language, home world, and the map copy where people you like to play with can be found. Using this data, it ranks all possible versions of a given map by attributing a score to each. You’re placed in the map with the highest score, which is the one with which you have the most affinity.

Aside from a strongly pessimistic view (which seems rather prevalent in this thread), there is no reason to assume guesting will not stay in. In fact, that’s a rather apt title for what you’d be doing in reality: guesting on the maps that are primarily filled with users from your guested server. This is what I mean by “TC’s DR” etc. Easier way to say the pain in the kitten mouthful “the map copy where a large amount of TC home players are at.”

(kitten forums and idiotic multi-tabbed BS)

That makes sense. I really hope that’s the case. Hopefully Colin has the rundown on concerns and can allay some of these fears in Ready Up tomorrow.

Thanks for civil response.

Nexxius.6017:

I saw it as:
So there’s three servers. (Server a), (server b)(server C). and (server E)
(Server A) (Area A) Is full and needs to go into overflow but (Server (Area A) Has very few people in it. Instead of creating a new random overflow, the spill over from (Server A) will go into this area. (Server C) is also in overflow and will go into the also nearly empty (server D). However John Doe is on (Server C) but often guests onto (Server A) and has friends and guild mates in that area. So instead of overflowing into (Server E) John Doe overflows into (Server to be better matched with the people he knows.

The blog specifically says there won’t be different copies of a given map based on home worlds. You will arrive in a map that is chosen for you by the mega server. That map will try to group you with people from your old server. But it is not your old server’s map. Key difference.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Twyll Blackleaf.9641:

Yeah, that definitely makes it look like people who aren’t able to transfer to a roleplay server are going to have real problems finding RP. Now they won’t be able to guest to Piken and go to Piken Main to find other RPers, because there won’t be a Piken Main; and the game can’t put RPers from different worlds together if there isn’t a way for it to recognize that a person is RPing.

Did any of you actually read the blog? There’s zero mention of guesting, let alone guesting being removed. I’ll reiterate that: they are not saying guesting is being removed. Did you think they were going to do that? That would be one of the biggest idiotic mistakes made. To re-use the analogy I used in god knows what thread recently, home server vs guest server is synonymous with where you live vs where you vacation at.

Let’s say you live in New York (blackgate), but want to take a trip (guest) to Utah (TC) for a larping convention (a day of RPing). Once you’re there and you get on a bus (waypoint) to head downtown (Divinity’s Reach), you arent going to suddenly find yourself in downtown Manhattan (BG’s DR). You’ll simply arrive at downtown SomecityinUtahIcantthinkof (TC’s DR).

For all intents and purposes, the server you guest to is going to be viewed as your HOME server for as long as you reside on that server in the game session. Why do you think it currently puts you into the guest server’s main map from an overflow as opposed to your home server’s main (forgetting to guest aside)?

Aidan, one of us is mistaken and I’m not sure it’s me. I hope like hell I’m mistaken, but here goes…

From my understanding the mega server does away with actual server shards. There’s no such thing as an SoS version of a map and a TC version of a map. Those are gone. What remains is your “server identity” which is used to try and group you with other people that have the same ID. There is no set map anymore.

From the blog: “With the megaserver system, players won’t be separated into different copies of the same map based on the world they selected on character creation. Instead, you will simply arrive in a map and be assigned to the version of that map that makes the most sense for you as selected by the megaserver system we’ve developed."

No map…no guesting.

I would further add that with these threads being closely monitored by the devs, the lack of someone saying “whoa, Nellie—guesting is still available, so let’s nip that in the bud” provides implicit support for the fact that there will no longer be guesting. Really, that would be an easy anxiety to address and would pacify this thread instantly.

And I completely agree with you; it would be “one of the biggest idiotic mistakes made.”

Nexxius.6017:

I doubt the devs are going to say anything, there’s not much that can be said to satisfy people without live testing it first. There is a few anet members on Tarnished Coast indeed (I saw one today) but they can’t really put their personal feelings before benefiting the game.

Regardless I am beginning to feel this won’t be as bad as everyone thinks it is. I am a little nervous of losing people in the community but I haven’t seen any word that they aren’t going to give people ways to guest on other servers with mega servers enabled.

At this stage I recommend patience rather than whining in distress about something that hasn’t even happened yet.

I’m hoping to be corrected, but I don’t think we can guest on other servers because there will no longer be other servers. Your “home server” is just a variable used to place you in some mega server map.

That’s why there’s a big ruckus here. A lot of us have guilds on different servers for whatever reason. Without some kind of RP tag, we’re not going to be able to find you guys on Tarnished Coast or Piken Square.

As it has been described to us, the mega server is splitting us up.

Star Ace.5207:

ExAstris.8527:

Star Ace.5207:

Nobody is attacking role players. Threatening to stop playing because ANet is betraying your “RP rights”, is basically the old “if you don’t do things my way, I’ll take the ball home so nobody plays.” Voice your concerns-just be reasonable and open minded about it. I have never seen an official post regarding this “RP hate” ANet “has”-it’s more of an ill perception of reality.

And to be honest, it does sound extremely elitist to want to play only with role players, especially given how TC is full. It does come off as a sort of “we don’t want to mingle with the unwashed masses”. Why should we judge every non-RPer as “unworthy”, and how dare you think I hate/do not roleplay just because I am not on TC? (Same concept with the big battles-how dare “leets” think that I am not good enough for their Tequatl run just because I am not part of their organized group, but am in the same map with them?)

This is not intended to offend, but more as food for thought-how these complaints come across to me.

The correct version of your analogy is that Arenanet is taking the ball home, and the RP’ers are left wondering what to do next. As mentioned, a lot of RP’ers are actually based in servers other than Tarnished Coast or Piken Square. Our guilds (and their hard-earned holdings) are established on different servers, and they guest over to one of the RP servers for that purpose.

That’s not elitist; that’s a choice I used to make able to make for how I wanted to play. The new rulebook is locking me out. I won’t be able to find those players anymore. Tell me—honestly—is that me being elitist? I’m going to miss that group of players. I’m not saying “my way, or the highway.” That’s Arenanet with the glib “guild up” comment. You have it exactly backwards.

I consider myself a role player at heart, and don’t feel slighted by ANet in the least. I have been playing on a non-RP server since headstart. What gives? Why should I be mad at “ANet’s betrayal?” Because there is none.

Even the addition of ascended gear was much more of a mistake. This is rather good for the game you proclaim to like, if you really do. That I think was a misstep, though I understand their reasoning for it (even though it didn’t apply to me.)

Lots of complaints left and right, from hardcore “leets” to RPers about a system they haven’t even seen fully implemented, and won’t be until “later in the year”, according to their recent statements. That is what is offensive and illogical to me-the constant moaning about the known unknown, from all parties involved.

(For all the others that say that world will be “too populated”, just go back to those days in which the game was new. Relive those days, rather than just pretending the game is “better” when there are 3 people on a map. I LOVE doing stuff solo, being an introvert in real life, but it’s just not reasonable for me to think that this change is “bad” for the game at large-changes that have yet to take place and can still be fine-tuned.)

I am not speaking of betrayal. I am talking about a new set of rules which makes previous associations in the community void. The mega server was purportedly designed to “enhance community.” What we have here is clear instance where that is not the case. I’m not being irrational in saying the current implementation, as it has been explained to us, will hurt this group’s ability to find each other. I didn’t say it is a betrayal. I’m saying what are we supposed to do now? I get that the mega server is happening. But what are we supposed to do?

I don’t know why you’re throwing around the word “leet” and questioning how much people like the game just because they have concerns. The complaints about a system that hasn’t been implemented? As it pertains to RP, the implications are exceedingly clear.

downwithdragons.8291:

Sallie Forthe.2473:

A schedule… for a game.

Nice… if I wanted a schedule I’d stay at work all night.

Time was when I could get into three Triple Wurm runs a night, now I’ll be lucky to get one in a day.

This move will kill your game. Time for a rethink boys, smarten up.

Oh, god forbid.. you can only do Triple Wurm once a day. I have gotten the chance to do it zero times since it has come out on my server. So what’s the answer? Guest to another server? Not according to the elitist players. Don’t do it then? That’s what I have been doing. Maybe its time everyone shares.

The servers has they are now don’t work. Period.

If I might presume to speak for Sallie, if you strip away the Wurm “wrapping paper” the core of the issue is choice.

Don’t like to guest? Cool. For some people who have to accommodate real life, guesting was how they were able to play. Mega server has removed that option.

Have limited time to do world bosses? Well I’m afraid the almighty mega server now dictates what you can do and when.

Like to RP, but aren’t based in TC or PS? Yeah, good luck finding that community.

Everything about mega server strips away choice in order to fill some empty maps. The cure is worse than the disease.

Star Ace.5207:

Nobody is attacking role players. Threatening to stop playing because ANet is betraying your “RP rights”, is basically the old “if you don’t do things my way, I’ll take the ball home so nobody plays.” Voice your concerns-just be reasonable and open minded about it. I have never seen an official post regarding this “RP hate” ANet “has”-it’s more of an ill perception of reality.

And to be honest, it does sound extremely elitist to want to play only with role players, especially given how TC is full. It does come off as a sort of “we don’t want to mingle with the unwashed masses”. Why should we judge every non-RPer as “unworthy”, and how dare you think I hate/do not roleplay just because I am not on TC? (Same concept with the big battles-how dare “leets” think that I am not good enough for their Tequatl run just because I am not part of their organized group, but am in the same map with them?)

This is not intended to offend, but more as food for thought-how these complaints come across to me.

The correct version of your analogy is that Arenanet is taking the ball home, and the RP’ers are left wondering what to do next. As mentioned, a lot of RP’ers are actually based in servers other than Tarnished Coast or Piken Square. Our guilds (and their hard-earned holdings) are established on different servers, and they guest over to one of the RP servers for that purpose.

That’s not elitist; that’s a choice I used to make able to make for how I wanted to play. The new rulebook is locking me out. I won’t be able to find those players anymore. Tell me—honestly—is that me being elitist? I’m going to miss that group of players. I’m not saying “my way, or the highway.” That’s Arenanet with the glib “guild up” comment. You have it exactly backwards.

Becka Williams.4978:

The best part? We’re stuck with this. Anet’s spent far too much time and money to let it go now. So, we’re just going to have to live with it till they get around to “adjusting” it.

Not true. I can just leave. I did it when Star Trek Online started time gating content. Sucked those first couple of weeks, but I did indeed “adjust.”

If the goal was to streamline server load, then I guess it will have been a success.

Star Trek Online followed a similar design philosophy, and I left the game shorty thereafter. Namely, they time-gated content and made it inconvenient to not be a member of a massive fleet/guild.

Here in GW2, you no longer have the option of guesting to grab an event. Well, why not a Guild World Event consumable???? Because I’m not in an uber-massive guild. We’re still working on unlocking the expensive normal stuff.

What it comes down to is this: the mega server system takes away choice.

Arenanet—this might be a step too far for me. You are basically dismantling the communities I chose. My guild is in SoS. I guest to TC for RP. Now, I won’t get to see those guys. My community is not restricted to just my home world/guild. Yet even those are now taking a hit. My guild is beholden to your schedule, and I chose my home world because the zone chat was nicer than it is elsewhere. Can’t wait to share maps with Grand Theft Auto kidz or constantly hear why Obama sucks. My community is being shredded to accommodate your top-to-bottom approach.

I’m sure these ideas looked awesome on the marker board in your offices, but out here in the trenches—actually in game—you’re really messing with the ecosystem. And if that’s the case, why wouldn’t I just start anew somewhere else?

How can Anet say they care about server identity and then completely trash it?! Guys, am I being obtuse here? Literally no more server identity in PvE? In which case, who gives a kitten about WvW?

I can see why they dropped all of the good announcements in this patch first. Cause I am kittened by this mega server system. To hell with this. I’m out.

DaShi.1368:

I don’t see Anet making special concessions for the RP community. Doing so would tacitly support RP in GW2, which Anet does not do. And they won’t because to do so would mean that they would have to go all in on making GW2 an RP-friendly game. Just a little change to support RP would encourage further demands from the RP community. For example, even the mention that there were paintings of horses got the mounts community in a tizzy.

I feel bad for the RP community, but it will adapt. The megaserver is a good idea for GW2 as a whole and won’t be demolished to appease a small number of players.

When the new system takes into account home server, guilds, friends list, and activities you enjoy (PvE, PvP, WvW, etc), it could be argued that allowing RP’ers to find each other isn’t a special concession. RP is an activity. The system is purportedly designed to foster community. RP’ers are asking for a way to make sure they can find each other under the new system. That’s not a concession. More like a nice gesture to a group that doesn’t feel particularly welcomed but tries to persist despite having taken its share of blows (most recently with town clothes, etc).

Palador.2170:

Kaaboose.3897:

THIS. Why do people assume this will seperate them from their own server?

Why? Well, let’s start with this:

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Player density. Let’s say there are an average of 5 players in each world’s version of Iron Marches. In the new system, the game server will temporarily merge those players together into a few maps.

So, let’s say servers A, B, C, and D each have five people in Timberline. This will try to throw people together into the “best” instance for them. Which instance is that, though? Well, if two more people from Server A log on, then they’ll naturally go to Server A’s Timberline. Right?

But then, some one from Server D logs on. Now, which Timberline do THEY go to? The system is trying to gather the scattered people together without being able to move them by force, so it’s going to direct the person from D to Timberline A. If someone from Server C then leaves the zone to use the mystic forge, when they return they’ll also go to Timberline A. See the problem?

And it gets worse. Let’s say that in a couple of hours, these servers get more people on them. Soon, Timberline A is near the ideal level and it starts to direct people to a different Timberline, in this case Timberline B (just to pick one). However, a lot of the people on Timberline A are NOT from Server A, they were put there because none of the other Timberlines were populated enough. Suddenly, you have people from Server A being sent to other servers to play when before that wouldn’t have happened as quickly.

Yes, I realize that I may be wrong about how this will work, but I’m not seeing any other ways for it to group people without running into these problems. They’ve already said it will not remove someone from a zone and put them into a different version of that zone, so it can’t do that. It can only work when people enter a zone, and it’s going to have to, on occasion, move you AWAY from your friends, guilds, and server.

+1 for clarity and logic.

It’s not difficult to see how the mega server could actually disperse some communities in order to alleviate empty maps for some of the lower pop servers.

You can put lipstick on a charr, but it’s still a charr.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Lunacy Solacio.6514:

Community isn’t just guild/friend list. Community is essentially everyone on your server, and that is being messed with.

One of the most exciting aspects of the new system is that it gets you playing with members of your home server more often.

What is happening with guesting?

Will players on one of the non-RP servers be able to guest over to Tarnished Coast/Piken Square? Or are RP’ers who made the mistake of setting up guilds elsewhere to be forever tagged by the system as “non-RP.”

In your quest to alleviate empty maps (a good thing), it feels like the players are going to be corralled into communities they might not choose. I can make my own choices, I don’t need the overlord mega server to do it for me.

The anxiety is this thread boils down to one thing: choice. The mega server system will be making choices for the players that we used to be able to make on our own.

Elbegast.6970:

Spock

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few

The option to toggle walk on/off wouldn’t even be in game if people didn’t voice their opinion before the game’s release. There is merit to voicing concerns prior to a release.

The mega server seems to consider factors such as home world, guild, friends, activity of preference in assigning a map. RPers are not represented in this system.

Colin’s response shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how RP works (“guild up”). Thus, since the Game Director doesn’t understand, it is a safe bet that the system will work well for everyone but RPers.

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” is pithy fun until you’re one of the few. I am not Vulcan, so you’ll pardon my concerns. Furthermore, this thread has been extremely levelheaded. The only ones kittening are the ones who don’t care about RP. That’s fine. That’s why there’s another thread about the mega server. This one relates to the mega server as it affects RP.

edited for clarity

MrDmajor.7084:

So basically this new system is something to be “worried” about because there isn’t a niche weighting system, and using the available tools to weight the system in your favors is not acceptable. OK. Cool.

“We want a special RP Megaserver”.

Good luck with that guys. I feel your pain. I want an 80’s Martial Arts Movie Fan Megaserver after you guys get yours.

The mega server is meant to group like-minded people.

This thread is about a community that is worried the mega server may actually fracture their community.

Some way to flag your preference (besides server, guild, friend’s list) is not the same as “a special RP Megaserver.” Maybe they’ll add custom flags and you can play with other Karate Kid fans.

MrDmajor.7084:

How would “dynamic encounters” be hurt by placing players around more players in low population situations?

How are “dynamic encounters” being handled currently that is BETTER than what has been proposed?

All this is, is a correction to the flawed overflow system. How is this a slight to the RP community? All it does is normalize map populations across all the servers. What does that have to do with server transfers?

The mega server prioritizes grouping according to certain criteria: home world, guild, etc. Some RP’ers are not on RP servers. Those RP’ers could transfer to an RP server, but they would lose all of their guild holdings in the process. Thus, it appears that RP’ers that are not on an RP server are “danged if they do, and danged if they don’t.” Either I transfer so I have a better chance of being grouped with a like-minded community—but my guild’s holdings are lost—or we stay where we are and be marked as “non-RP” by the system.

You’re absolutely right: the new system does alleviate empty maps by spreading population. What you don’t seem to understand is that RP’ers are concerned that they will be dispersed by weighting factors that don’t account for their actual preferences as to who they want to be paired with.

MrDmajor.7084:

So RP’ers DON’T want to be grouped with their RP’ing friends and guildies on maps when population is being distributed? I’m ignorant of how this concept hurts anybody.

The current system people end up by themselves on maps either because of overflow or a combination of server population and map popularity. If anything this will allow RP’ers broader options. You have a better chance of being in the same instance as your friends or guild mates + surround by more players who could also potentially be RP’ers.

How is this worse than what is currently in play? I can understand wanting a feature to role play better. What I’m not getting is how this MegaESOserver is hurtful.

Nobody loses their server, it’s just an option better than the 2nd class citizen “overflow”.

Yes, you are “ignorant” of the concerns. RP’ers throughout this thread have stated that dynamic encounters are at the core of some of their best experiences. Not all RP’ers are headquartered in one of the RP servers nor or all of them in a guild. As per my previous post, some guilds find it impractical to move to an RP server.

edited: grammar

ColinJohanson.2394:

To maximize your odds of running into other RP players more often, you’ll want to make sure you’re on the same world (generally TC and Piken are viewed as the RP worlds), and in guilds with other RP members also on that same world. For example, everyone from TC currently will be set to high priority to sort together, same thing goes with people who are all a part of the same guild (so guild up RP folks!)

We’ll continue to monitor, adapt and update the system as we go forward as well, for now I’d suggest seeing how it works once we enable the mega server system across all maps and then giving comments and feedback when you see it in action!

(edited to add Piken!)

My small guild and I are on Sea of Sorrows—we originally chose it because the name “sounded cool.” Overall, it is a nice community. Later, we learned that Tarnished Coast was the unofficial NA RP server. We would like to migrate toTarnished Coast but are reluctant to give up our hard-earned guild upgrades (again, fairly small guild).

Our concerns are further compounded by this response. In this new system, it appears my guild will have low priority for meeting other RP’ers. Can we still make a conscious choice to guest to TC for RPing purposes? Or are we screwed because we can’t move our guild holdings and the Megaserver will dictate our priorities?

I feel very uneasy about this. This is a “voting with my dollars” issue (i.e., will be closely watched for updates).

Dafomen.7892:

I don’t get it…..moderators in zone chat?
There are no moderators in any zone in GW2…not even official game masters you could contact.

Probably you mean the forum?

Zone chats are “moderated” by the community.

Moderation…in general. Yes, chat is monitored by the community. But without action “behind the scenes” any reports are meaningless. Star Trek Online (OP) has a report function. I just don’t think anyone on the other side is listening.

Pretty invested in this game. I want it to blossom into an amazing virtual world. This last patch…Battle for Lion’s Arch was just terrible. Bugs (and not just on patch day) were really bad. The whole event seems to have been marred by the no rewards in early days/RNG in later days. Chat has been pretty caustic, like the event just kind of puts everyone in a bad mood. I’ve avoided it as much as possible, and am taking a sanity break from Tyria till the tournament.

Wooden Potatoes agrees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4d5itzuOXY&list=UUYUY9_i44IDNOs_Ja815mlA Namely, out-of-game story has been removed from the main website and dispersed to make it even more difficult to follow the (out-of-game) lore.

“If there aren’t stories like this implemented in-game, it can make a lot of the Living World seem narrow… But if you add a little bit of stuff like this, it does tap into your imagination…” —WP (Quoted because WP warrants enough attention from ArenaNet to be told about the awakening of Mordremoth before the general players.)

Again, to reiterate, I don’t really want some sort of social media scavenger hunt for lore. If it’s not in-game, please, pretty please, just put it on the main site.

Just logged into Star Trek Online after ~10 months away… Zone chat was absolutely the worst I’ve seen in some time. I mean, terrible: sexism, racism, homophobia.

HEY! Yeah, you.

Whatever team is in charge of keeping this—my primary game—welcoming…thank you! Seriously, thank you, moderation team. Sometimes you don’t know what you have ‘till you don’t have it. <3 and cookies and stuff

Ah, butterflies. They flitter from flower to flower, drifting on whatever breeze might carry them to their next sip of sweet, sweet nectar. Until my (male asura) mesmer snares them. Whispers to them. Shapes them into winged magenta murderers that prefer the taste of brains to mere flower juice. Yesssss, make no mistake: my butterflies will rend your mind.

I wanted more “one-on-one” time with Scarlet. She’s been my nemesis (before I even knew) for a year+. Braham interrupted my chance to backhand/trade quips/make out with Scarlet. 6.5/10

There’s this regiment called the 14th Lionguard Security Force. According to GW2’s Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/GuildWars2), they’ve been busy:

“You smell Lion’s Arch before you see what’s happened to it. There’s a sickly-sweet odor of rotting corpses mixed with a stinging snap of gunpowder. It’s a change from the choking, lethal veil of Scarlet’s miasma, now drifted out to sea.

By noon, the first shots rang out. The 14th Lionguard Security Force engaged Aetherblade squads for control over Trader’s Forum. Lieutenant Honeclaw led the charge, pushing Aetherblades back with bursts from her flamethrower.

The fighting lasted most of the day. The 14th holds the forum, but Honeclaw has been quick to stop her troops from calling this a victory. Now the 14th is waiting…waiting for reinforcements, for the enemy’s next move. They know Scarlet will not give up an inch of Lion’s Arch without a fight.

In the distance there is the sound of combat and an acrid blue-steel cloud of smoke.

Scholar Ela Makkay, embedded with the 14th Lionguard Security Force/“Marriner’s Might” ~DO"

Nice bit of context and story flavor, aint’ it? Me—I just found out about it on reddit. Because I don’t use Facebook. Yeah. At least the old stories (which I thoroughly enjoyed) were on the main website.

Hey, at least give a head’s up on the main site if that’s the new plan?

Edited: to reduce QQ tone, cause hey, who likes QQ? Now it’s more like PSA with opinion.

Add me to list. Started with Escape from LA, but was anomalous. Now, with the Battle for LA, it happens every single time I’m in that map.

Teddy.8723:

Hi, i was playing fine these passed few days and i suddenly encounter this on the nxt morning and i have no idea how and what to do. anyone knows how to fix this? ive already patch the client and after few days this happend. help someone…

Does this seem to only occur in the Battle for Lion’s Arch? I have been dumped to my desktop with the same thing repeatedly. I am beyond frustrated. I’ve been told to completely gut my graphics settings (even though I can WvW at max). To no avail. Can’t “vote with my dollars” for a game I can’t play. Very, very frustrated.

Yasi.9065:

Here’s a list of things that are just totally wrong with this living story content:

1. Achievements that encourage people to just stand in a safe spot and afk
2. Achievement text not clearly formulated, a la missing additional requirements for getting an achievement like not getting downed
3. Achievements that are just plainly bugged and only work if you abuse another bug
4. Obscure and unfair loot distribution
5. Starting boss fight with getting downed because there is no invulnerability timer after port
6. No purge of main server, resulting in people afk-botting to not get kicked

Feel free to add to it…

All those things are causing a lot of tension between players, a lot of frustration, name calling, hate… everything negative you usually shouldnt want to have in your community because it causes players to quit the game.

Fix it, asap, and dont make the same mistakes again. But wait… some of those things are actually things you were told before, but did again… so I guess there’s no hope left for GW2.

Add to the list: consistent crashes to desktop right as event is about to succeed.

I hate this LS patch.

The frustration from everything you mentioned—and not being able to, you know, PLAY—is palpable in chat.

WilliCalifornia.1837:

After the patch, I have noticed lower population in lion’s arch than it was before. Back then even Overflow were quite populated, now kinda sucks. It feels dead, and people only shows up when the new champions(assault knights?) are about to spawn.

Could be because players are getting dumped to desktop. Repeatedly. Like, a lot.

Cush.4063:

Only issue is that once again I got booted right after killing all the knights and accepting my reward. Not that I have a beast of a computer and I had 50+ fps at the time. Luckily after spamming my party members join button I was able to get back in the area and get into the scarlet fight after someone else probably got booted since it was hard capped the first couple times I tried to join.

Just happened to me for, oh, the 14th time. I am disgusted with being dumped to my desktop. Took down a knight, dumped. Defeated hologram. Dumped before I could reach chest. This is complete and utter bull…“kitten.”

Zaxares.5419:

I don’t think I’ll mind the KasJory scene. I like both characters, and I’m glad that they have the chance to find some happiness together.

I also don’t think there’s a “focus” on homosexual relationships in GW2 like some people are claiming. Yes, KasJory are in the spotlight at the moment, but I’d argue that they’re the only homosexual couple to receive such treatment so far. The other major same sex couple, Caithe and Faolain, basically only get some exposition in Twilight Arbor story. It’s not even mentioned throughout the rest of the game (aside from some comments between Caithe and Scarlet in the Aetherpath).

Yes, it could be said that there really isn’t a frontline heterosexual romance in GW2 so far (Logan and Jennah are important, but it’s mainly kept to the background, so I’d rate that on the same level as Caithe and Faolain), but I don’t think that one single instance of a spotlighted same-sex relationship counts as an “agenda”.

I agree. The only people who see a homosexual “agenda” are people who think homosexuals are “icky.” Are Jory and Kas homosexuals? Mmm, yeah. Does that denote an “agenda.” Hrmm, no. No more than Logan and Queen Jennah denote a heterosexual agenda. Le sigh.

Doodakoff.5246:

Am I missing something here?

I see alot of posts about how it “brought a tear to my eye” and it was “incredibly emotional”, “brilliant” etc however, I just didn’t feel that.

I am primarily a PvE player, I dabble in WvW but my interests in GW2 lie in the lore, story, PvE aspect of the game. However, I was so unemotionally detached to any of the characters that I just didn’t care if they lived or died.

I didn’t care if Rox goes to her warband, I didn’t care if Delaqua or Kasmeer died / stayed together etc. I literally finished the LS, thought to myself “is that it?”, then logged off.

In fact, I was kind of disappointed in the fact that there wasn’t a twist to the ending. Nothing unexpected happened. It ended in quite a boring (imo) linear fashion. Scarlet died and an elder dragon awoke and because of the amount of theories hinting at this, I just wasn’t surprised.

I guess what I’m getting at here in this jumbled up mess of a post is -

Am I one of the select few who didn’t care what happened to these characters and felt disappointed at the lack of shock value / twists in the ending of this story?

No, I super (<—super) care about the lore/story. I’m slowly coming round to the way the final instance with Scarlet was carried out. But I have to admit to feeling a bit let down. I liked it, I guess. But…Scarlet has been my nemesis before I even knew it—for over a year. I would have liked something more personal as a finale. Honestly, as a character, I’m a bit adrift without her. I just wanted that final scene to be more personal. “It’s always been you and me, Scarlet. Let’s do this.”