Guild Wars 2

gennyt.3428:

My understanding of that bit was that defenders should be given better balanced tools. IMO walls being death traps starts a snowball effect of terrible gameplay. With walls being relatively safe from player weapon attacks, the siege cap can be lowered, meaning attackers can be pushed off and then they can counter seige knowing they won’t face 20 ACs tucked behind a choke if they breach. It won’t be fun killing siege spam defense or ktrain PvD offense like we have now. That’s just my opinion. I could bug him and perhaps get him to clarify :P

^this

Walls should be safer, and should get even safer when upgraded

If a defending force is better / larger than the attacking force, they aren’t going to use a wall, they are going to go out and wipe them. The walls are for outnumbered / outmatched defenders to gain a defensive advantage. Right now it kind of works opposite to that. Walls are death traps for smaller forces, and an attacking force of any size can destroy siege and enemy players easily when the defensive players / siege are up on a wall.

Thanks everyone for keeping the discussion going, but I think it’s clear (and has been for some time) that Anet is a million miles away from the player base when it comes to game design, especially in terms of WvW. I think we’re all wasting our breath.

I’m sorry to say I left the game about four months ago, and it’s highly unlikely that I’ll be back. I haven’t thought about the game in all that time, and I really wouldn’t have anything valid to add to the discussion at this point.

To those still playing, I wish you luck.

The timing of today’s “leak” sure is curious.

Community getting a little too unified behind stuff you don’t want to do, ArenaNet?

The trial balloon you just pushed up is going to get shot down badly. It will create a distraction, though…so I guess mission accomplished.

If the rumor is true about guild alliances replacing servers…I don’t envy you. That’s an extremely difficult idea just from a logistical standpoint. If you don’t do it really well, it’ll kill your game mode. Also, just balancing the populations isn’t enough…you’re still going to have to deal with the stuff in this thread. Don’t delay the inevitable.

Alaric.7628:

I have spent a ton of hours in WvW as well. Mostly 3-7 man grps. Have done some zerging and some larger guild group fights. The number one thing for me is being able to find other groups, preferably being able to see a long distance to find them. We use the sentries for sure (although I don’t think they should prevent stealth). One of the biggest problems with the new maps are all the obstructions that block viewing distance. On the old maps most fights happened in areas that were unobstructed but were on the edge on LOS options. The new maps make it very difficult to find people and then when you do find them, it is very easy for them to break line of sight and disappear. The verticality exacerbates this issue (not to mention there are many drops that will kill you rather than allowing stairstep drops).

Population wise, I think they need to merge servers big time (maybe 6 servers) and then have map iterations like in EOTM and just combine the score

That’s a great observation about the changes in line of sight! (no pun intended) =D

Very good point. It’s true about the keep design as well. Think of the old verses the new east and west keeps on the BL map. The old ones facilitated defense and scouting by having good sight lines and vantage points. The new ones… a map queue could be five feet away and you might not see them.

Menaki.6329:

Good thoughts, but I like large scale fights aka blobs (I don’t press just 1), breaking these, I would quit the game permanently. For many players 30-40 is a blob, for me it has the perfect size for nice fights, if they don’t hide every time in an object, that’s why I went to T1, where these zergs were balanced most of the time. Because, many times you can’t defeat (or in other words roflstomp) them all, and so there is still the challenge that they could surprise you and deny your lootbag or chest. I would miss this kind of flurry and relief afterwards when you conquer an object. But I know how it feels, when only one of three servers is karmatraining.

Breaking up blobs doesn’t mean removing large scale fights. It means making karma training and night capping less profitable and less “path of least resistance”. It’s hard to have any kind of game mode if you can just bring overwhelming numbers and trivialize everything. having a 20 v 40 or a 50 v 50 can be great fun. 80 v 10…running around capping all the upgraded structures with absolutely no way to mount resistance…not good.

That’s why I suggested changing scoring and loot, rather than placing some hard cap on numbers or whatever. Make even or outnumbered fights, defense and upgrades, the most profitable things in terms of personal loot and server score, and the issues will take care of themselves.

People don’t get in a huge blob and run over undefended objectives because it’s fun. They do it for the loot, karma, ppt, etc., or they do it because it’s all there is to do. Fix the population / coverage issues, and put the loot where the fun is, and things will improve.

I don’t think the ideas of PPT and fights should be mutually exclusive like they seem to be in some people’s minds. To me that points to issues with the game design. Scoring points for your server to help win the match should be more directly tied to actively playing and engaging the opposing players.

I also think all sorts of fights, whether it’s solo, small group, or large group can and should be supported. Each can and should play a worthwhile role in earning points for the server’s success in the match, and all should be able to exist on the same map in concert with each other.

That’s one of the great things about open-world unbalanced PvP…the potential for everyone to help out by engaging opposing players in the way that works for them. “fights” can and should include open field, small and large scale, siege or no, walls or no… pretty much any way players can engage other players.

What about a much more active system of scoring that’s better exposed to the players? One that rewards the fun and active things you can do in WvW, and provides less reward or none at all for passive activities that don’t involve engaging the opposition. How?

What if matches were decided by active scoring instead of passive old PPT? Players earn “world points” for their server by actively engaging in WvW against opposing forces.

Tie into the NPC scaling system that’s already in the game and use it in a new way. As a fight between players occurs, account for the number of players on each side of the fight. When the fight ends (when a player leaves combat), provide a “world point” reward to that player based on their performance in the fight (healing + damage + CC? + stomps).

The same can be applied when near an objective. Defenders should be rewarded with world points for every 3 minutes they successfully hold an objective against active attack. World points could also be rewarded for people doing active things like escorting / killing yaks (or players carrying supply), and upgrading objectives.

All of these world points would go into one big pool and at the end of the week, the server with the highest world point total wins.

Weight the world point rewards by taking into account:
-The size of the forces on each side (more points for fighting outnumbered, less points for zerging down small force)
-Points for kills
-If an objective is involved, weight the rewards based on how long the objective was held against active attack, and how upgraded the objective is.

Then give a floaty chest or popup on the screen that says something like

“You’ve helped your server win the match! You earned XXXX world points!”

Or do floaty numbers and a cool sound.

Personal rewards of loot and gold and karma could be tied into the same system. Give chests every X amount of world points you earn, or make personal reward tracks like sPvP has which you advance by earning world points. Heck, even WvW masteries could be tied to the same system. Bring it all together and expose it to the player so it feels good and makes players want to engage in good ways, rather than negative, passive ones (like zerging undefended objectives all day).

People would be able to clearly see and understand their contribution, and their contribution to the server’s points would be personally rewarding in a direct and immediate and meaningful way. It would feel more “fair” and common-sense…if I win a tough fight against a larger force, I should get more reward!

Sitting with maps full of undefended and un-upgraded objectives would do nothing for a server. Attacking and capturing undefended and un-upgraded objectives would provide minimum points (or maybe none at all). In this way, people would seek out fights and work to move supply and upgrade because it would directly and obviously reward the server and the player for engaging with the opposition and actually playing the game mode.

Zerging mindlessly around maps would become the least profitable play…both personally and in terms of world points. It would be really hard to earn points with a huge group and no opposing forces. Small forces would be much more encouraged to take part in the match, and would be able to contribute in a real way by playing smart and with skill.

The most possible points for the server, and the fastest personal rewards should come from:
1) Fighting even or larger forces in any form and winning. This is what it’s all about.
2) Successfully upgrading and defending objectives from active attack. Yes, defending objectives should be a bit more rewarding than attacking objectives. defending is harder, takes more time, and is more limited in where it can occur.

Successfully capturing upgraded and defended objectives should be next on the value scale, only slightly less rewarding than the other two.

So there’s an idea. Probably needs some work, but you’ve incentivized positive, skilled play and actively engaging opposing forces, and disincentivized zerging and karma training. You’ve made WvW feel more rewarding directly, and made it about the fights and server score at the same time.

(This all assumes that upgrading goes back to being a manual process of turning in supply (not personal money or karma) in order to “build” upgrades).

ArchonWing.9480:

Please do not include salt in your post.

Seasoning makes every dish delicious. =)

ArchonWing.9480:

• Describe a typical hour for you in the Alpine Borderlands in the past. For example, What size of group were you running in? What kind of tasks did you run? What activities did you do?

During the day, I would roam solo or in a small group, visiting hot spots on the map where I knew enemy players (solo or small groups) would typically show up at. I’d flip some camps, mostly when it provided opportunities to mix it up with enemy players.

During prime time, I either followed a tag (mid to large group) and helped defend or reflip objectives, or I played with an organized guild and fought enemy groups / flipped objectives. Large group defense was possible on Home BL due to keep waypoints and terrain which allowed for reaching objectives in a timely fashion when they were attacked.

ArchonWing.9480:

• Compare your experience described above with a typical hour spent in Eternal Battlegrounds, if you went there at all. Does your style of play change between the 2 maps?

The experience was very similar. I would visit hot spots where I was likely to find enemy players, I would flip camps, I would run with zergs or organized skill groups in prime time for fights. Again, reaching points on the maps in a timely fashion meant arriving in time to have a fight with enemy players. Objectives being closer together and being able to be hit by siege from other objectives meant small groups and solo players (like me!) could siege creep and potentially take objectives, or soften them up for larger friendly forces (this is a great part of EBG).

ArchonWing.9480:

• Compare your experiences described above with an hour spent in the new borderlands.

I run around looking at pretty scenery, working my way around an obstacle course and never see enemy players. In the rare occasion where I do find a fight, once someone dies it takes forever to find them again to have another fight…and takes them a long time to get back to where they were.
I’ve solo roamed on the new BL in NA T1, and gone 45 minutes without seeing a single enemy name. When I do rarely find enemies while roaming, it’s a large group and I can’t do anything to attack or defend. (maybe pew pew with an arrow cart for a few seconds before they destroy it with AoE).

ArchonWing.9480:

• Describe the nature of combat in the borderlands in the past. How have the new borderlands impacted this paradigm for you? What style or build changes might it cause? For example, knocking people off cliffs or into lava might play a more important role.

This question shows one of the main issues with the design of the new map, and WvW development over the last few years. You seem to think that the map should be central to the game play…that it should be PvE…v…p. That players should spend their time figuring out ways to exploit or counter the map.

WvW should be a PvP game mode, period. Everything (especially map design) should revolve around supporting, incentivizing, and facilitating players fighting players. Players should be working on builds and comps to counter or exploit OTHER PLAYERS builds and comps. The map should be a backdrop and provide flavor and focus and depth to the play.

Do you have any idea how lame it would be to make a “knock people off cliffs” build and then stand around on a deserted map in just the right spot all day waiting for someone to run by so you could use it?

Combat on the old Borderlands worked much better because people could get to fights in a timely fashion, could get back to fights when they died, and could count on certain focal points where they could find a fight in a reasonable amount of time. The map facilitated, instead of dictated. Consider that for a bit, if you would.

ArchonWing.9480:

• In your experience, compare the time it takes take a structure or objective here, then it did in the past.

Taking structures is as fast or faster than it ever was in the past…because now there’s almost zero likelyhood of anyone being there to defend. Having no fights makes the PvDoor very smooth and fast.

ArchonWing.9480:

• How is the loot and wxp for you compared to in the past? Will it be able to sustain whatever you are doing? Did it take a hit, or was it improved? If you are planning to unlock an elite specialization, do you think you were helped or hurt in these regards? Do you think you could pursue any other in-game goals just by playing WvW?

World Exp is faster than it used to be, and the skill point chests are nice to get. It takes much longer to unlock an elite spec using only WvW than it does running through PvE maps, though.

Loot overall is still way behind other game modes in terms of what’s available and the speed / quantity of acquisition. Also, the path of least resistance to the most loot in WvW is to get in a giant blob and karma train / blob over smaller enemy groups. This is supposed to be a PvP game mode, so fighting other players and using skill to defend or attack should be more profitable than zerging.

There are many goals I am unable to pursue while playing WvW…for instance I can’t get dungeon tokens or any kind of mastery exp. I’m forced to PvE grind for those things. There are quite a few items which are completely unavailable to the WvW player.

ArchonWing.9480:

• How will the map change impact the long sessions (multiple hours) you spend in WvW?

My long play sessions are spent almost exclusively on EBG. What little time I spend in a BL while roaming is generally just frustrating and lonely, and time spent on a BL with a group tends to be small, quick engagements with long boring obstacle courses in between.

ArchonWing.9480:

• In 100 words or less, describe how the new BLs could be improved.

Scrap them and make maps with the primary focus being PvP. See my post elsewhere on the forum for concepts.

ArchonWing.9480:

• In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a new WvW player.

I have no idea, I have over 7k hours in game. If I had to take an educated guess, I think they would be very confused and have a difficult time understanding the game mode. It probably seems like a lonely PvE map with no clear worthwhile objectives for the individual. A new player stumbling on a fully Auto-upgraded camp would probably rage quit and never return to WvW.

ArchonWing.9480:

• In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a veteran WvW player that is new to the maps.

Where is everyone? Why is it such a pain to get around? Oh look, something’s contested. Good grief no way I’m getting there before it flips. Why are the waypoints always contested? Why is it so difficult to take an undefended camp? Why is everything fortified when nobody is here? I’m going to EBG to find some fights.

ArchonWing.9480:

• Which map am I most likely to find you currently, if you’re on Gw2?

EBG or very sadly doing PvE that I don’t enjoy. When my guild isn’t running though, lately I’m usually playing other games.

Sviel.7493:

The escort idea is only fun if enemies are there to attack you. Otherwise, it’s even less enthralling than walking yaks alone.

The players carrying supply idea was a quick concept to demonstrate a few of the points I was trying to make. It’s not a fully fleshed-out system, obviously.

1) It shows what I mean when I say design with pvp as the central element.
2) It’s an example of making something worthwhile and meaningful for individuals or small groups to do. If you also make upgrading manual, and make upgrades more significant (i.e. an upgraded structure could be defended by 1-5 players against an attacking zerg for significant time), the movement of supply and upgrades become a significant pvp activity.
3) It’s an example of the “if you built it, they will come” concept. If I’m an individual or small group and I want fights, I know that supply lines are a place where other individuals or small groups will be. It’s a self-fulfilling thing…people will be there because people will be there, and if it’s not too far from a spawn point, people are going to mix it up and fight.

I say that WvW has little identity right now because the elements being added / changed don’t make sense for WvW as a unique PvP game mode. A game mode which is largely PvE with worse loot and the occasional blob running you over is not what they should be shooting for to retain a sustainable population.

It seems like you’re discussing what could or should be. I’m really trying to deal with what is. Guild upgrades? Yaks for PPT? Those things aren’t going to fill up a BL map with people, and both are examples of how little of an identity WvW has in the minds of the ArenaNet devs.

They need to figure out who the players are who enjoy this game mode, and start designing it to be about fights. Guild upgrades are far too expensive to make any impact, and very few players are going to play WvW long-term if all there is to do is cap camps and kill yaks whenever you don’t have a blob, and 3 of the 4 maps are wasted. Might as well do PvE in that case…same play but much more rewarding.

Should there be PPT? Should there be objectives and upgrading and supply, etc? Sure. But again, everything should be designed through the filter of the central premise. This is a pvp game mode, and it should be about supporting, incentivizing, and facilitating fights between players.

What about having players carry supply from camps to towers / keeps instead of mobs? The player would move at half speed and be unable to attack while carrying the supply bundle. Think of all the PvP game play that could emerge around that one idea. Fighting yaks is lame…fighting a player who could set down the supply and attack you back? The five people escorting him? Better.

Should it take a bit of time to run to a fight or run back to a fight? Of course. But ArenaNet needs to look closely at how long is too long and players start getting reluctant to engage or giving up entirely. There are plenty of other ways to make death meaningful…like my suggestion of allowing supply to be lootable from dead players.

Objective cascades are better game play. Fixing the issue of zergs being the path of least resistance and breaking all the good game play is a separate problem. Moving objectives farther apart does nothing to fix zerging.

Yeah, I want my video games to be just like real life.

I especially like spending lots of time on hair removal in my video games. Oh, and using the bathroom.

Or maybe not. I don’t mind some realism in video games, but I tend to think the realism should focus on the cool and good aspects…like character animations or sound effects. I’d rather if they avoided adding realism in terms of the pain and frustration associated with real life. I play these games to escape and relax because of those things.

High chance to fail = okay, possibly works.
High chance to fail based on a million things that are completely out of your control = frustrating time sink.

Rangers, and the WvW game mode…

The Tina Turner to ArenaNet’s Ike.
The red-headed step children in ArenaNet’s family.

Another profession is OP with this rune, maybe in one game mode… so let’s nerf rangers. Perfect.

Forcing people to play a singular way to finish their profession is only a good idea to the people who happen to enjoy that way of playing.

If it happens to be your preferred play style…you white knight their awesome game design and give everyone else crap for not be willing to take on a “challenge”.

If it is not your preferred play style, it sucks…because games aren’t fun when you are forced to play a way you don’t enjoy for a significant amount of time just to finish your profession.

Again, why did they remove map completion from WvW? Because it wasn’t “fair” to you PvE types to make you run around a PvP map. Remember? This situation is sort of similar…except that instead of map completion, this is having all the tools available to your profession in order to play it the way you want.

I say put the pets on a vendor in WvW for 5k badges. Put them at the end of a PvP reward track. AND leave them behind the map event. Then…everyone has a “challenge” that they can enjoy while getting their pet.

I also got nothing, not even a message, when I finished Verdant Brink.

Hammerguard.9834:

GW2 isn’t just PvE, it isn’t just WvW, and it isn’t just PvP, regardless of you or anyone else thinking that. You shouldn’t be able to ignore over two-thirds of the game and still get everything you want.

Okay. Sounds good. So when they add the class mechanics that require everyone to play WvW for many hours in a highly organized and successful way, then I’ll accept these pet’s locations as being perfectly appropriate. Until then, I think these pets are badly placed.

You know, sort of like world completion used to be, where you had to explore the WvW zones, too…and people complained about it so loudly that they removed world completion from WvW? Oh yeah, that happened.

I don’t ignore 2/3 of the game. I just like PvE on my own terms. Same as anyone who plays the game.

I don’t mind playing for 3 hours to get a pet. Let me play the way I enjoy for however long and get the pet.

This hanging out waiting for the stars to align so I can end up on a map where people are organized and there’s enough people so I can spend several hours doing something I don’t enjoy with a small chance of having a few minutes to grab a pet… Not cool.

There are no pets which require a large amount of player kills or time spent in WvW (which I wouldn’t mind, but obviously PvE people would hate)… so there shouldn’t be any pets that force me to play PvE meta events that I really don’t enjoy.

I’ve cycled through about a dozen instances of the zone today. Guess how many where actually attempting to complete the event? None. Even if they were…the chance of success is probably pretty low. This sucks.

You can make a game fun and captivating, you can create memorable moments and beautiful graphics. You can create complex and challenging puzzles or encounters.

Or, you can create a bunch of gates, roadblocks, time sinks…and put some rewards behind them.

Both ways, people will rush through the content. When people are playing a new game they eat it up no matter what. If it’s just fun and open and memorable, they will rush through because it’s addictive and you can’t turn it off. If it’s a bunch of miserable time sinks and gates, people will push through the shortest, fastest path just to get it over with and get to the things they enjoy or the rewards they want.

The real question is what happens after players rush through. The first type of design brings people back again and again for the long haul. The second kittenes people off, pains them, and makes them want to never do the content again if they don’t HAVE to.

ArenaNet created some really cool stuff for the expasion…much like my first paragraph. BUT…they tacked on some of the gates and grind from my second paragraph and put the fun behind that. Because of that, a lot of people were rushing / pushing through cool / fun content and a beautiful new world as fast as they could just to get the painful time sinks and gates out of the way so they could have fun. Not a good thing.

What they are doing now is reducing the unnecessary pain. The time sinks and gates really don’t slow people down, they just ruin the pacing and experience of the content and make it a means to an end, rather than an experience in and of itself. By loosening those restrictions, they allow people to experience the new amazing fun stuff for what it is.

It was a good decision, and I hope they continue in that same direction. This wasn’t a “nerf” of content…it was a removal of pointless time sinks in the way of the content and mechanics that people bought the expansion to experience.

Just adding my own experience and opinion after a few days of playing druid in PvE and WvW.

It really did feel like it was too hard to get into avatar form…It took painfully long to build up. I think both healing and damage should push the bar up more quickly. I was generally only able to use the form once if at all in a fight, and it was at or near the very end of the fight.

I felt like I was using it just because “omg it’s finally ready to use!” rather than using it tactically and effectively for the abilities it offers. It should be available to me enough so that I can use the skills at the best times…the way it is, it’s pretty much never there when I need it, which makes it more of a useless gimmick than something which should be highly useful (considering it’s the basis for the whole elite spec).

I also felt like my time in avatar form was too short. I was rushing to use the skills before it totally ran out… ending early wasn’t much of an option if I actually wanted to use the skills, so I was starting from scratch every time.

I’m not really sure I understand the need for cooldowns on the avatar abilities if it’s going to take ~30 seconds to build up the life force only to spend a very short time in the form and spam the skills one time before it ends. Having the abilities have cooldowns gives me the impression that the intention is for druids to be able to spend a reasonable amount of time (50% or more maybe?) in avatar form during fights. I think the spec would feel much better if that was the case.

binidj.5734:

That’s the second time you’ve posted that Test and it’s a real kitteny thing to suggest. ArenaNet got one thing wrong, …

This isn’t the only thing wrong. It’s just the one thing that’s on topic for this thread. ;-)

The things I most enjoy in GW2…
-Creating / testing new builds
-Playing WvW
-Exploring open world

With this expansion, all of those activities are trapped behind a bunch of gates that I don’t enjoy and that feel painfully slow. Trapping the fun behind big time sinks and a single method of gaining experience (grinding events in the new zones) is not cool, and was never the way GW2 was designed originally. Remember “play how you want to play”?

I want to create builds with elite specs using my 18 characters, and try them out / play them in WvW. I want to explore new zones… not run into constant gates that require a certain event state or a certain mastery. To add insult to injury, in most of the cases where I’ve finally done the grind and waited and passed the gate, I’ve found nothing, or something disappointing, on the other side. Not good.

Maybe the 400 hero points might be somewhat reasonable if people only play one character and only ever want to try one elite spec. For people who have many characters, enjoy all professions, and want to try all elite specs… it’s miserable. Reduce the point cost please, and scale the events so that when I finally manage to get to one, I don’t have to wait six hours for a group in order to complete it.

I feel like a much better flow to the expansion would have been if people could finish their elite spec by the end of the first zone…and start playing with their new toys in the second zone. So…I’d say 250-300 HP would be more appropriate to complete the elite spec…and scale the events so most can be done solo. It’s personal advancement. Expecting me to find 2-3 other people who are willing to do the same hero points 17 times in a row is silly.

Yubria.5671:

That’s strange – it’s been automatically sending extra xp to another mastery for me. I have some progress in three different mastery tracks I don’t even want to work on yet because of it.

I haven’t noticed that happening…but if it is, that’s still not great. Why wouldn’t it at least send the extra exp to the next tier in the line you actually selected? If it’s just spreading it at random, it’s still pretty much wasted.

Horrible, Anet. For shame.

It would be so simple to have it auto-select the next tier in the same line. Please fix this.

Merkin.8412:

Fozzik.1742:

1. Get in blob.
2. Run with blob
3. Die at beginning of each fight and lay there.
4. Ask for rez when fight is over.

Repeat for 3 months.

If that is how you play the game I feel sorry for you.

Not me, but roughly 75% of the people I’ve been playing with over the last couple days.

1. Get in blob.
2. Run with blob
3. Die at beginning of each fight and lay there.
4. Ask for rez when fight is over.

Repeat for 3 months.

If it is actually lost… that is horrible, cheap, and lame game design. ArenaNet should be ashamed of creating time sinks like that.

Yet another way they’ve kicked dirt on the original design philosophy… now you absolutely do have to stare at the UI instead of the game world…otherwise you’re punished with even more grind.

Straylight, you don’t earn mastery points by filling the bar. Really need an answer from someone who understands the system. At least Eldrin gets what I’m asking…

…

The question was where does your experience go when the bar is full. It does not go into the next tier.

Pretty simple question…but I can’t figure it out.

When your experience bar fills up, but you haven’t yet spent the mastery points, where does the experience you earn go?

Please tell me it’s not just lost… that would be horrible, Anet. Sometimes people might go quite a while before noticing that their bar filled up. I don’t think it’s fun game play to stare at my bar all the time trying to avoid lost experience.

I thought it might go to the next tier in the same mastery line, but it seems it does not. Where does it go?

Here’s some suggestions of how to make the MegaServer work in practice as well as it does in theory.

First of all, the only way a system like this will allow communities and friendships to form is if I can join a friend, party, or guild on a map intentionally, with 100% reliability. Meeting people is great. Seeing the same faces is great. But when I get to know someone and want to play with them, I HAVE to be able to do that without fail. You can’t make planned meetings and play times rely on the random chance of ending up on the same instance.

So how do you do that? By exposing MegaServer info to the player, and allowing them to choose the instance they want manually. You can still offer the option of bypassing the choice and simply entering the map in whatever instance the megaserver chooses.

Add a new tab to the contacts/LFG window. This tab will allow you to select a zone, and will then list all current instances of that zone (with population displayed for each instance in some way…like low/medium/high/locked). Each instance in the list would show the number of servermates, guildmates, party members, and friends that currently occupy that instance.

Selecting a particular instance from the list would expand it and show the account names (in expandable tree format) of the servermates, guildmates, party members, and friends so that you can see specifically who you know in the instance.

Make a button for “join selected instance”.

This way, people who want to end up on the map with their friends, guild, or just a nice person they met yesterday will be able to do so 100% of the time. If it happens that the people they want to meet are in a full instance…they will know right away and can work out a map move with their mates.

Second suggestion would be allowing people to create a new type of group, which would work similarly to the way zoning into dungeons works now. If I join a party and someone in the party enters a dungeon, I get a popup asking if I would like to join my party in the dungeon.

Allow a player to create a “map group”, and select a target map. They would create the group, select whether to invite specific account names, the people in their party, or everyone in their guild. The selected people would then get a popup asking if they want to join the map group created by player_X, with a timer (say countdown 60 seconds). When the 60 seconds is up, everyone who joined the map group is zoned into the selected zone AS A GROUP. Let Megaserver balance things and place the whole “map group” together in an appropriate instance all at once.

If you implement these two suggestions on top of the current MegaServer system, it will be much closer to a working system, and I think most people would be happy with it.

Again, the regular functionality would remain…if someone didn’t wish to choose a specific instance, they could simply waypoint to the zone and let MegaServer do its thing like it does now.

This is probably a stupid question, but I’ll ask anyway.

My experience with MegaServer so far:
Yesterday I wanted to show a guildie my new armor look. I told him I was in Divinity’s Reach. He waypointed to Divinity’s Reach…and couldn’t find me. Hm…I guess he was in a different instance.

We tried joining party together, he waypointed out and back in… still no luck. Couldn’t get on the same instance. Eventually, I had to move to a different zone, then he had to follow me to that zone, then we finally ended up on the same map.

So, my question – How are parties meant to get onto the same instance together when the system puts them in different instances? The old system allowed me to right-click and join them in their instance, but the MegaServer does not appear to offer that functionality. Are we just supposed to zone out and back in over and over in hopes that we’ll get lucky?

How much worse will that be when our guild gets 50 people together to do guild missions? How in the world are we all going to get on the same map together?

WvW titles. Those achievements are monstrous, and can’t be bought.

There’s already a ton of clipping issues and incompatibility between armor sets in the game. Between pieces of armor, between hair and collars, between weapons and armor, weapons and backpacks, etc. etc.

How can that be an excuse for not allowing town clothes to be individual slot skins in our wardrobe? If there’s an incompatibility, players will work around it just like they already do with all of the already existing incompatibilities. They will try a combination, say “ooh, that clips and doesn’t work”, and will try something else. Nothing is lost by giving the freedom of putting the town clothes in the locker as individual armor skins.

In reality, this seems like an excuse to try and sell more stuff in the gem store. Sorry, we can’t give you the functionality you want with the things you already bought…buy these NEW things that will be so much better! Forced obsolescence is a crappy business tactic, and entirely unnecessary.

That being said, a few of the dev’s ambiguous statements could potentially mean that many of the town clothes pieces WILL be able to be applied to individual armor slots. If that’s the case, it would be nice if they were more clear on the matter. People will probably just need to wait and see whether this is actually a problem or not.

I told you about the chili….but you just had to find out for yourself.

So if the PvP mystic forge recipe for unidentified dyes is no longer possible/available… is there going to be a new mystic forge recipe?

How exactly are we going to be able to get dyes other than -
1) A large amount of crafting materials to make specific shades
2) gem store

What are the “select in-game rewards” that they mention?

Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

The Dye FAQ

With dyes becoming account unlocks, the demand for dye will decrease and unidentified dyes no longer will drop as loot but still will be available from the Mystic Forge and select in-game rewards.

Would it be possible to provide some specifics on what “select in-game rewards” might be?

Thanks!

/signed

I totally agree. I’d much rather dyes be a fun thing and a nice surprise that drops rather than something expensive that I hardly ever get. I could care less if dyes are “valuable” in terms of gold. I just want a wide variety of colors to choose from so I can create the right looks for my characters.

I know this is about the gem store, in the end…they want to maintain / increase the rarity in game to push more sales of dye packs. I understand, but it does reduce the fun of the new system.

There should be a recipe (mystic forge or otherwise) that makes unidentified dyes and doesn’t involve PvP rewards. Players of other game types like dying their armor as well.

If they aren’t going to drop, make them at least a bit more accessible, and not just a money-maker for PvP players. Does anyone care if dyes are super valuable? Cheap dyes seem like more fun (just overall, having a few expensive rare ones is fine) I’d rather have a bunch of colors to use on my characters’ armor, rather than spend a bazillion gold for one color.

Bunda.2691:

…giving the mesmer a few more options for applied conditions and support/survivability.

More options for applied conditions? This could be a very good thing. Where will they be added (weapons, traits, etc), and which conditions…

More support / survivability could be very nice as well.

I’m interested to see what they did…including the bug fixes (which could very well make the profession considerably more effective).

It’s called Abril when wreeting in a blag.

Greeting Starfighter. You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the frontier against Xur and the Kodan armada.

One thing’s for sure…it doesn’t make turrets more survivable at all. If that was Anet’s intention, this wasn’t the way to do it.

Being forced to choose between the new trait and rifled turret barrels makes me sad. The new trait might be quite useful, but I don’t see how I can give up more damage and range.

And yeah, I’m the one guy running a turret build in WvW. =P People never see it coming.

Palador.2170:

Fozzik.1742:

I love the idea of horizontal progression unlocked by actually doing content in the game world…I love that it will be easy for them to add a greater variety of traits for players to choose from. This system is definitely a step in the right direction.

This isn’t really horizontal progression, though. It’s more of a horizontal digression. It’s taking an existing feature of the game’s vertical progression, and locking it behind a barrier that you have to overcome or bypass. Outside of those Grandmaster traits (which you can’t see until level 80), there’s nothing actually new here.

Maybe there’s an appeal to that that I just don’t get. So many people seem happy with the idea, and I don’t see why.

Giving people more to do at max level is never a bad thing. When there’s already a ton to do, but no real incentive to do it…adding incentive is a good idea. Giving people more variety in experiences, and more variety in build choices is good. Making a system which allows for the easy addition of even more variety in the future…even better.

It’s a game. Playing it isn’t a “barrier”… it’s the whole point.

The old system required you to pay 10 gold to get your grandmaster major and minor traits. This new system allows you the choice of paying gold for the traits, or doing content. It’s better all the way around.

Options are good.

No need to FORCE people to do things. I’ll do the content unlocks when it’s content I enjoy, I’ll buy the others.

Wait for the full picture. This isn’t the only change coming with the update. I’m guessing the changes with skill points and probably some other systems will make the early progression quite different.

I love the idea of horizontal progression unlocked by actually doing content in the game world…I love that it will be easy for them to add a greater variety of traits for players to choose from. This system is definitely a step in the right direction.

That ranger trait makes me really excited to try it out.

Wanze.8410:

Fozzik.1742:

I heard it was going to be March 32nd.

Or maybe April 31st.

Possibly the fifth Tuesday in May.

I set my computer clock forward to February 30th 2015 and just completed my first scavenger hunt.

Grats! Can you tell me who wins on American Idol next year?

I heard it was going to be March 32nd.

Or maybe April 31st.

Possibly the fifth Tuesday in May.

Huh?

*confused

They say in the patch notes that another vendor is coming who will take the crap you have left over.

Phenn.5167:

All of the above…AND:

The idea “the Ranger sans pet is no Ranger at all” betrays the attitude I mentioned several pages back. Clinging ardently to a pre-beta vision for the class will destroy any hope of actually fixing the class.

Pets don’t work. Period. You can buff their move speed. You can jack up their HP. You can replace them with Chuck Norris. But in the present state of the game and the present state of the Ranger, it’ll be like replacing a single two-by when you’ve got termites. As above—they need a complete over-haul.

If anything, the single point I’d be ecstatic if the Dev teams walked away from this CDI with is simple:

Be willing to change your vision for the class.

You don’t have to get rid of the whole vision. Just be flexible enough to recognize what portions of the vision cannot work in the game y’all’ve created.

So very well said. My thoughts exactly.

Some flexibility is in order if this is going to work, and rangers are going to improve. I’m sure Allie is regretting her choice of analogy at this point…no need to beat that into the ground any more…but hopefully the devs are thinking seriously about what’s being said. We all really want this to work.