Guild Wars 2

Just played it on the TC main, post patch, we could see the citizen count, but the miasma level stayed at 100% the whole time. We had 700+ rescued, group rewards showed popups at 300 and 600 I believe, but contained nothing. No one got any group rewards, just 15 bags at the end.

As my previous post says, support offered to forward my ticket to the Technical Support Team for further investigation and I accepted. The response I received was, except for the first 4 words which were “As we previously stated..”, the EXACT SAME as the response I received on 1/24/14 (copied in my 2nd post in this thread) stating that there was nothing else support could do for me.

If there was nothing else support could do for me and my ticket had already been to the Technical Support Team…why did they offer to send it there? Why offer me false hope and blatantly waste my time like that?

I’m sorry, but there just doesn’t seem to be any good reason for this.

Gaile, you’re the only Arenanet representative that has actually responded in a manner that makes me trust you are actually listening. I have also seen a lot of similar posts lately, not just about connection issues, but about the quality of service players are getting from the technical support group.

Is it worth it, at this point, to ask them for whatever information they have that may help with this issue, even if they themselves can’t do anything further? You seemed to be able to get more out of them than I was (and I do thank you for that ) so I’m not very optimistic they would be able to provide anything useful or would even understand my request. Really, should I even bother submitting tickets in the future for any other problems if these are representative of the kinds of responses I can expect?

Here is the wording of the error message you get when trying to enter the WvW/Edge of the Mists

“The game client is unable to gain access to the log-in server at this time. This is most commonly caused by firewall settings or router settings, security applications, or connecting through a campus network. For additional support, please visit
http://support.guildwars2.com
(Code=19:9:17:5097:101)”

Considering this started as a known 2 hour outage and became a gamewide outage after that time limit expired, it seems very rude to blame the players instead of admitting it is a problem on your end. Granted, you could say this is just a generic connection error message…but if that is the case, then it doesn’t really give any information, does it? If that’s the message you always use, then you are just blaming all outages on everything but your own servers, which is pretty much lying. And yes, I see the “This is most commonly caused by…” part, but does that really matter that much?

I’d suggest either creating different error messages that actually reflect the true cause of the problem, especially in cases like this where it is clearly known it is a server side and not client side problem, or actually make it generic and simply say the server is down, period.

There’s no need to make an outage worse by having us chasing our tails trying to fix what you say the problem “could” be if you clearly know that is not the case. It’s just adding insult to injury at that point.

And yes, it is important to us if you in fact do know what the problem is and if it is server side or genuinely think it is on our end.

I tried to submit one, but I’m not sure if it went through or not. When I clicked on the link in the email, it opened IE to the GW2 Support page with a copy of my original ticket and two rating choices, which I believe were the same in the email; “Good, I’m satisfied” and “Bad, I’m unsatisfied” with a comments box, but no submit button.

I copied the link over to Firefox and this time it included a “submit your rating” button on the right side of a large bar that covered a good portion of the bottom of the screen. After writing my comment and pressing the button, it might have submitted it, but I can’t be sure. The page became buggy after that and wouldn’t really respond. And since the button was “Submit your rating”, I can’t be sure if it submitted my comments or just my rating either.

mercury ranique.2170:

Development of a set takes time and this one is no exception. They obviously made a mistake with this skin and they want to make sure they don’t screw the new thing up. Besides that, they likely want a set that is really really awesome. They did screw up and owe that to the people who bought the set.
So the more time they take, the more awesome the new set is going to be. And if you don’t like the new set, then it will have been longer that you have enjoyed the current one for free. So win-win in my opinion.

Instead of an entirely new set, one that was both unique and amazing looking as they promised it would be, they simply changed it from the Human tier 3 Cultural Armor set to the Feathered armor set. That’s it. How much time do you think that really took? They already had the flame mesh and special effects, all they had to do was add it to the feathered set. They seem to have a problem with not wanting to put the time and effort into creating original content anymore.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sorcerer%27s_armor
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Feathered_armor

Smooth Penguin.5294:

You can ask for a refund if you don’t like the new Flamekissed skin, but no such luck with any Makeover kits.
But most of us are glad they changed the look. Human T3 Cultural needs to be exclusive. The Devs realized the mistake, and made a wonderful change. Much love and credit to them for the efforts to correct that mistake.

Now the Feathered armor set is not as “exclusive” as it was. Granted, it was far easier to get than Human Tier 3 Cultural Armor, but all they did was take another set and “flamekiss” it. Heck, people did that all the time themselves in GW1 with TexMod.

Now what happens if I say I am unhappy that my feathered armor set is both not as exclusive as it was and a better version of it can be found in the gem store? Price doesn’t matter, what matters is that the original set people have, which was unique, is now just a cheap looking version of a set they would be required to buy gems to get.

All they had to do was make a unique set and they certainly had all the time they needed to do it, which was +2 months or so. But they took the easy way out. Minimum amount of effort just like before.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

BobbyStein.2315:

gidorah.4960:

BobbyStein.2315:

You’ll have to wait and see how we integrated story into the release. I think it works pretty well but I’m biased. I am looking forward to the feedback we receive next week.

you also thought scarlet was a good villain.

I also know the entire plot a year in advance.

I’m torn on that. On the one hand yes Scarlet has slowly become a better villain, and with the release of the latest patch we’ve seen the complaints die out as people have become really involved in speculation and have become excited again – which is great.

On the other hand the complaints did exist and people did not enjoy her for at least a couple of the living story releases, and to dismiss that simply because in the end it will all make sense is a mistake.

Even if you’re keeping a villains motives and actions secret, they should still be enjoyable to the players. Just because you know the ending and it’s good doesn’t mean that the fact that people complained isn’t problematic.

Think of it like a novel. You’ve read the entire thing and it’s great so you like it! And that’s great, and you’re telling everyone else it’s great! But they’re in the middle of the novel and so far haven’t found it all that compelling and are considering skipping to the end because honestly they’ve had enough and can’t be bothered riding the story through. Is that easy enough to understand? The middle of the novel should be just as compelling as the end – the beginning possibly more so.

Please keep in mind that the above is coming from someone who doesn’t really have a problem with Scarlet and has, from the beginning, been willing to wait it out and see where it goes. I’m just trying to point out that the outcry of a portion of the community definitely highlights areas that need to be worked on in the future.

Well said and I completely agree. I have actually had this happen before. I’ll read through a book series, think it’s great, recommend it and the person I recommend it to can’t get through the first book because the author was still in the early stages of their writing style. It doesn’t matter if everything turns out to be amazing and well thought out in the end if people are turned off by the introduction. You only have one chance to make a first impression and that first impression has haunted the Living Story through all it’s releases. People that might enjoy the current and future content aren’t even bothering to give it a chance or, for some, even play it, all because of the quality and lack of information in it’s first few chapters.

lordkrall.7241:

Yes, one can of course choose to ignore the reveal for the present content and copy something about different content being talked about months ago, but that doesn’t really make much sense.

This thread is about this specific release, which was released with this specific trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkA0Y_KRcTo which does make it quite clear that there will be Living Story components in the release. In fact the trailer makes the whole Living Story component much larger than the map itself.

Oh? I saw positive feedback as well. But then again, I suppose one sees what one wants to see.

And there is a rather major difference this time around.
Now they are using Scarlet and her minions as a way to explain why we suddenly have a new map to play on. Which quite a few people prefer to just suddenly have a new map playable for no ingame reason whatsoever.

The map will still be there long after the Living Story part is over, and I am quite sure that the Living story components will indeed be removed when it is over. And thus we will get that map, and at the same time possible a couple of new players.

Different content, you say? The name of the content, Edge of the Mists, appears pretty similar to me. But then again, I guess one can choose to ignore the promised content and post something about completely different (and to some of us, much worse) content that is actually being released, but that doesn’t really make much sense.

This thread is about Edge of the Mists; past, present and future. The fact that the promised content is not the same as the actual release is the entire point of these posts and very relevant to the conversation.

I didn’t see any positive feedback to including the LS in WvW. But then again, I play the game as well as read and post in the forums, so it’s possibly with all the hate of it I was seeing in map chat in the Borderlands and Eternal Battlegrounds, I might have missed some here. Can you reference any posts? Did those posts outnumber the negative ones?

And your belief about it pulling in new players…well, you must have missed how the community reacted to WvW Season 1. It brought in tons of achievement hunters that left as quickly as they came, but not before disillusioning a lot of good WvW players and commanders. The fact that people that only played WvW couldn’t get in without waiting 1-2 hours was only a small part (which was also supposed to be the entire point of Edge of the Mists). Adding a bunch of people not familiar with the mechanics of WvW was kinda of like adding a bunch of teenagers into the ranks of a trained army. Or trying to herd kittens. It DID NOT work out well.

lordkrall.7241:

I though it was quite clear that Edge of the Mists will be invaded by the Aetherblades and thus give us a rather clear view that it is very much tied into the Living Story.

We know Scarlet have been looking towards the Mists, and now we will see why.
It is extremely unlikely that this have not been planned since they announced Edge of the Mists.

Here’s the contents of the link announcing Edge of the Mists. There are no references to Living Story at all, so I don’t see how anyone can deduce it is likely they had it planned all along.

Also….why? There’s was nothing but negative feedback when Scarlet and the Toxic Alliance showed up in the Living World last time. At the time, I personally thought it might work out simply as a way to add a new twist and something else to enter into logistical calculations and tactics, but since they could be easily avoided by small and large zergs alike, that didn’t really happen. All their addition did was ruin current WvW content when the toxic NPCs were placed right on top of mercenary camps in all the maps.

Edge of the Mists was supposed to be a quality of life improvement for WvW. It’s intent is clearly stated below. I was looking forward to it as a way to get back into WvW after Season 1 burned me out. It’s disappointing to see such a promised improvement is being combined with LS content that has been…less than well received by many.

It also might be in the devs best interest to take a look at the map chats in Lornar’s Pass during and after the Marionette event as a preview to how a large quantity of players participating in LS content that requires tactics and coordination…does not bring out the best in everyone.

Greetings, folks! I’m here to announce an exciting new development in World vs. World!

We are in the process of designing a brand-new map that will let you enjoy WvW while waiting to enter the existing Borderlands and Eternal Battleground maps. This new map, the Edge of the Mists, will be able to accomodate as many people as want to play in it at any given time. Unlike the existing WvW maps, once a version of the Edge of the Mists fills up, another will be created so that anyone who wishes to take part can do so.

While this map will allow you to earn rewards that will help you in WvW, it will not contribute directly to your world’s score. This means worlds with a large population won’t be able to use their size to gain an unfair advantage with this map. This is a place where you’ll be able to test your WvW skills, earn World XP, and experience content at the cutting edge of WvW.

It’s imperative to us that we provide space for as many players as possible before we continue to make improvements to WvW, because every time we make changes and updates, more players get stuck waiting in line. This new map will eliminate that entirely and make it so everyone can experience the grandeur of WvW whenever they wish.

We’ve been looking into tackling the problem of limited space in WvW for some time now, and we have finally reached a point where we can get you, the players, involved in our solution.

We are telling you about this map now, long before we are ready to launch it, because we want your help to make this the best possible experience we can. We will be inviting thousands of people to come play in an public test version of the map to provide us with feedback, stress tests, and to help guide the design and development of the final version of the map. We are looking for guilds that are WvW-focused to provide us with the numbers we need and to provide some of the basic structure we’ll be looking for in these tests.

We’ll be starting off with small testing windows that will become more expansive as we get closer to finalizing the map. To apply for a spot in the test for your guild, please have one representative from your guild fill out this survey.

Testing of the map will go through the beginning of 2014, at a minimum. To be considered for inclusion, your guild needs to have at least one fluent English speaker capable of compiling feedback for us. None of this testing will be under NDA, as we want as many people as possible and we need your input.

We’ll have more details about the map as we continue to develop it and as we start the actual testing. Your involvement in this process will be critical to the final implementation and design of the map. We will be making decisions based on the feedback we get from these tests and that feedback will determine the final version of the map.

We are thrilled to be entering into a new phase of development for WvW where we get large groups of players in to test and provide feedback on large-scale projects before they go live.

We’ll see you on the battlegrounds!

Sorry, there was a little bit of confusion on the tickets, so I’m going back in my notes and email to make sure I list it right this time.

I opened Incident: 130904-002031 on 9/4/13 where I received the initial “disable all services and startup programs” instructions. I waited awhile to see if the issues got any better and, when they didn’t, I tried to update the ticket.

I opened Incident: 131016-001618 on 10/16/13 when I found I couldn’t update my first ticket because it had been closed. I did mention the older ticket and copy/pasted what had been suggested and the results. The response was to create the /clientport80 command line option in a shortcut and try that.

On 10/23/13 the support system was revamped and all existing tickets and support logins were deleted.

On 1/23/13 I opened my most recent ticket, request #290447. To my knowledge, that is the only one that currently exists because the other two were deleted. Again, I did mention my two previous tickets.

And while my main concern is the connection issues and the affect they are having on both my wife and my ability to play the game, I am also confused by the responses I received from support in my latest ticket/request.

I was told to do something I had clearly stated I already tried, I was told nothing else could be done after only a few troubleshooting attempts and then I was told my ticket could be forwarded to the Technical Support Team for further investigation (after being told nothing else could be done, btw), which seems to mean that technical support had not yet been involved. I did respond asking them to forward it.

Really, I’m as confused by the responses I have gotten from support as I am by the connection issues.

Changing the title of this post in an attempt to make it more accurate

One of the most common pro-train arguments seems to be that there is nothing else to do in this game and Arenanet just needs to add more content and the trains will go away on their own.

The fact that these players are saying that is proof they simply haven’t explored the game to any great length. The truth is there are plenty of other things to do all across Tyria, but the train offers rewards with no risk of death or even much thought, so there is no incentive to go out and find anything else.

World bosses, temples, hearts, dynamic events and dynamic event chains all give you experience, karma, gold and loot. The latter can be very rewarding in loot, story content and useful and powerful consumables that you can’t find anywhere else. Map completion itself, aside from the rewards from hearts, POIs, WPs and Vistas, gives you a good reward based on the level of the map and, when finished, a title, achievement points and two of an ingredient needed for many legendaries.

But the champ farmers have no incentive to even go out and look for this content, so they don’t even know it’s there.

Granted, these all do take effort. If you want something that “…is more rewarding with as little preparation, peer pressure and requirements…” as the champ train, I would suggest that an MMORPG is really not the game for you. One of the core concepts of this type of game is that you have to work for your rewards.

However, if it’s effortless rewards you are after, I have already provided an alternate game for you in my previous post.

http://orteil.dashnet.org/cookieclicker/

Enjoy!

BiJay.9830:

@1: That’s actually how it’s working atm. you can cycle through enemys with tab. When you don’t have an enemy selected, hitting tab targets the nearest strongest one. The random deselecting might be due to having enabled “right-click to attack/interact” (with it on it deselects the target when moving the camera with right click).

No, that is how it is supposed to work. It doesn’t. They have listed targeting fixes in multiple patches and, so far, none of them have actually fixed anything. I’ve had instances were tab targets nothing, despite enemies being all around and where the first target it picks is a neutral NPC 10 feet away when there is a champ standing in front of me. Trust me, it’s still broken.

BiJay.9830:

@3: That’s cause of the outdated engine Guild Wars 2 uses. Having an SSD minimizes those problems, though. As they still didn’t implement the promised DirectX 10/11 support, I doubt they will have any major improvements on the engine any time soon.

What’s your point? It’s still a bug. I’m also not investing in an SSD to fix it. Besides, it wasn’t always like this and they haven’t upgraded the graphics or changed places like Lion’s Arch enough to explain the increase in load times for the map and the UI. Why would reduced latency and access time fix a problem loading the exact same amount of data? It is much more likely due to increased server lag than anything local.

BiJay.9830:

@4: I never experienced that bug. Might be because of lag.

It was reported awhile ago and supposedly fixed in a patch, but part of or all of the fix likely got overwritten with one of the new patches. (this has happened with several older bugs, so it’s nothing new) They will likely just have to re-patch it.

New update on my ticket. It deepens the mystery even further. Honestly, this has become more of an enigma than the Living Story, at least so far…

Thank you for contacting us about the disconnection issue that you experienced.

Please understand that connection issues can occur anywhere along the network path between your computer and our servers. This is the nature of the Internet in general, where any point in the path can suffer congestion that causes lag or intermittent loss of connectivity. I sympathize with your frustration about these issues but we have reviewed recent information about the game and we are not able to identify any issues with our service. Support is not able to address losses resulting from issues beyond our control.

If you continue to experience lag or connectivity issues, please let us know and we’ll escalate your ticket to our Technical Support Team for further investigation.

Regards

I’m genuinely confused here. When I click on the Support tab from the GW2 main page and then click “Submit a request”…aren’t I already submitting a ticket to the Technical Support Team? If not, what team did my connection issue get routed to?

And while it is true that there are many hops from my computer to the GW2 servers, there are hundreds of reports similar to my own in the Tech Support and Game Bug forums (thread creators and the people in the threads who say they have the same issue) and this makes it pretty likely that the problem isn’t all of our computers, modems, ISPs or the internet as a whole, but the GW2 servers. There are simply too many reports from too many locations around the country and globe for it to be anything else.

I will follow this as far as it needs to go, which means requesting an escalation to the Technical Support Team, as both my wife and I have too much time and energy invested in GW to make giving up a reasonable alternative. But it feels like I’m spinning my wheels here.

Can a dev or moderator please shed some light on this issue for me?

Blude.6812:

Oh crap, not another train thread from someone who want to dictate to everyone else how to play a game. Hope the mods merge them all. If you don’t like the train then stay away. You don’t have to involved in it, especially since all ya want to do is ruin it for others.

siralius.9517:

Anet, bring an end to these types of posts. Thnx.

Oh crap, not another post from someone who wants to dictate how we discuss things in this forum (merge all champ farm posts) or what we can discuss at all (bring an end to these types of posts). If you don’t like these threads, just stay away. No one is forcing you to read them or post. You don’t have to get involved, especially since all you want to do is ruin it for others.

Looks like both of you and the numerous others, who I didn’t bother quoting who share your opinions, should learn to take your own advice.

And as for the topic itself, I’ve seen many useful and workable ideas so far and they are all based around the same concept; remove champions from starter areas. I think this is both feasible and will have no negative affect on the game whatsoever. Champions in starter areas did work just fine until the introduction of champ bags and the forming of the champ trains that almost immediately followed. Whether you downgrade the current hostile NPCs to Veterans or create a whole new class, I think their difficulty should remain the same, but the point would be that they no longer drop champ bags, just normal loot. You still get event credit and you still get loot, you just lose the champ farmers. It becomes a starter area again.

And for those that feel they have the right to play this game however they want, they are, for the most part, correct. However, champ farming isn’t playing the game. It requires no skill, tactics or thought, which is the entire point of playing an MMORPG or most other games for that matter. In fact, it doesn’t even require a human at the keyboard to be done (my paperweight can sit on my 1 key all day long without breaking a sweat :-P ).

In fact, I was actually having a hard time finding a game to compare it to that can be won with such mindless non-effort, but the internet is vast and bountiful.

http://orteil.dashnet.org/cookieclicker/

For all you champ farmers out there, enjoy a game that is even easier than champ farming. After your first 15 clicks and choosing the first upgrade, all you have to do is sit back and wait for the computer to click enough for you to upgrade again! (Sadly, you do have to click these)

Enjoy with my compliments!

StinVec.3621:

Very much agree, though I would vote for 15 minutes (20 max) as my ideal time. There are also many people with disabilities and medical conditions to where it can easily take 10-15 minutes just to go to the bathroom. I think 10 minutes would be a little on the ‘bit too soon’ side, with 20 being the longest I can see as being reasonable. But, yeah, an hour has no logical basis for being the kick time any longer with the content changes and world dynamics having evolved.

15 minutes would probably be fine. I agree there are many legit reasons to go AFK for a short period, as you attend to something that requires you to leave the computer, and I wouldn’t want a shorter limit to kick these players. What I want is to prevent people from doing what this guy says he does.

Malediktus.9250:

60min is just fine, I often go early to events like tequatl, go afk and do something else and come back when the event starts. if the timer would be shortened I would feel forced to use an anti afk makro. I cant be bothered with doing these events on overflow just because I can only afk for [insert random time here].

As a side note, what do you think would happen if they had put the new Marionette or Wurm events in Queensdale or Frostgorge Sound?

During the Claw of Jormag boss fight in Frostgorge Sound, the champ train either ignores it entirely or asks what percentage health he is at so they can be sure to spend the least amount of time possible on him to get his reward and get back to their champ farming.

Consider what effect this kind of behavior would have on the Marionette or Wurm fights, events that require almost an entire map limits worth of players to even have a chance at completing.

What would be your opinion of the champ train if it’s presence failed one of those events you were participating in because the farmers refused to come help (it’s longer and more complicated than Jormag and, unlike Jormag, absolutely no guarantee you will win) and the map player limit meant, without them, you wouldn’t have enough people?

Maybe the next Living Story events should be in Queensdale and Frostgorge Sound, with just as complicated events, ones that would be too long and have no guarantee of success so farmers would likely stick to their trains.

I suspect opinions would change when players are forced to see and be affected by at least one of the downsides of the champ train.

GW2 is an MMORPG. The champ train removes the “RPG” part. If you want to get to lvl80 as quickly as possible and endlessly run the champ train to get gold and items until you get there, you aren’t playing an Role Playing Game, it’s as simple as that. If you wish to argue, please state the role play or story elements involved in the endless champ trains.

As it was previously stated, the fact that the main train is in a starter zone means that new players actually think this is how the game is supposed to be played and don’t understand it for what it truly is, which is simply an exploit of game mechanics. These champs were not meant to be farmed, they were meant to be difficult encounters for new players and where simply the next step up from heart and dynamic events.

Heart events – help out any way you can, you can help by killing normal level enemies or performing tasks

Dynamic events – work loosely as a team with other players to achieve a common goal, usually an organized fight between players and normal level enemies

Champions – work as a team with other players to take down an enemy too strong to be taken down alone

I’m tired of the arguments from trolls and champ farmers that this is just the way they want to play the game and it doesn’t hurt anyone else. Just be honest. It’s the easiest and laziest way to gain loot, nothing more, and you either don’t appear to be aware or don’t acknowledge the negative effect it has on others or the game as a whole. I avoid Queensdale like the plague, turn map chat off on the few occasions I find I have to be there and pity those that find themselves starting in that toxic environment as their first introduction to GW2.

You think its bad when new players find the lvl16-59 zones emptier and less organized than Queensdale? I find it a relief. Those zones are actually what MMORPGs are all about, exploring the world, collecting pieces of the lore and story through hearts and random NPCs and occasionally encountering others to fight alongside you. That is a Massive Muliplayer Online Role Playing Game.

The champ train? That’s multiplayer “pushing a lever for a pellet”, a basic psychological experiment that is more appropriate for mice in a box than humans in a complex game world.

It is true that this game is not linear and you can play almost any way you want. But champ farmers are not playing the game, they are acquiring a pile of pellets in the laziest and most mindless way possible.

Maybe I was unclear about my intentions, probably due to my confusion over Support’s responses, but I still want to get my connection issues resolved. The Request/Ticket Support group may have given up, but I haven’t.

If any devs or players could assist me, it would be much appreciated. I have invested a great deal of time, energy and money in GW1 and GW2 and I would like to continue playing and be able to enjoy that experience. I know there has to be more that I can do aside from what I have already tried, I just don’t know what it is.

Here’s a list of everything I’ve tried to fix my connection issues. They haven’t helped me, but maybe they will help you. I realize you have already tried some of these, I’m just be thorough incase a step was missed.

- disabling all services, startup programs, restarting the pc, making sure your anti-virus and firewall are disabled and trying to run the game

- trying to run the game with the command line -clientport 80

- running the -diag command line and sending support the output

- bypassing your router

- running the game with the command line options -repair and -verify seperately

- deleting and forcing the game to reinstall the local.dat file in C:\Users\****\AppData\Roaming\Guild Wars 2

- connecting through your router, but setting your pc to a static IP and port forwarding ports 80, 443, 6112 and 6600

…And I was right. It didn’t matter.

Thanks for getting back to us.
We’re sorry to hear that we haven’t been able to help you reach a resolution for the issue you’ve been experiencing. At this point, we have gone through all the resources and suggestions at our disposal. We regret that we are unable to continue troubleshooting this issue with you. We recommend that you contact your ISP or local professional for further assistance.
You may wish to review the official Guild Wars 2 Technical Support forum, where you will find a wealth of information and support provided by both players and ArenaNet Team members. You may find a resolution to the issue already has been posted on the forum or you could create a new forum post to request input about the problem.
You will find the Guild Wars 2 Technical Support Forum on this link:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech
Again, I am sorry that we cannot help you further, but if you have any other questions, please let us know.

To recap, these suggestions include:

1st ticket

- disabling all services, startup programs, restarting the pc, making sure your anti-virus and firewall are disabled and trying to run the game

2nd ticket (because the ticketing system got revamped)

- trying to run the game with the command line -clientport 80

3rd ticket

- running the -diag command line and sending support the output
- being told again to disable all services, startup programs, restart the pc, make sure my anti-virus and firewall are disabled and to try to run the game (which I had just done again before submitting this ticket)

Personal Knowledge/Community Based/Support Document Troubleshooting

- bypassing my router
- running the game with the command line options -repair and -verify seperately
- deleting and forcing the game to reinstall the local.dat file in C:\Users\****\AppData\Roaming\Guild Wars 2
- connecting through my router, but setting my pc to a static IP and port forwarding ports 80, 443, 6112 and 6600 to my pc

Really? That’s it? You’re allowed to just give up? You didn’t even want the Game Advisor report this time around. I have tried to be polite through this entire process and have followed all steps given to me, despite the fact that you revamped the entire support system in the middle of it by deleting our accounts and existing tickets and all replies I have received appear to be pre-written and copy/pasted with the only personal touch being the name at the end.

And in the end, you refer me to the Support Forum, where I can easily see many other people are having the exact same issue with no resolution. Since it’s your site, I’m sure you can see that as well. The only constant I see when browsing the threads in the support forum is that other people mention they were told, after going through their own extensive troubleshooting experience with Support, that the problem must be with their ISP. Since the GW2 community consists of players around the world, it is much more likely to be an issue with the GW2 servers than with all of our ISPs.

I’m sorry to have to ask this, as I know there are good people on the GW2 team, but are we that unimportant to you? If you have a problem with your servers and are fixing it, just be honest, let us know you know about the problem and the status and timeframe of the fix. While not an immediate solution, we would at least know you are working on the problem. But please don’t give us the run around until we give up or you eventually say the problem is our ISP.

…I just don’t get it.

I believe the current time a player has to be AFK before they are automatically logged out is 1 hour (correct me if I am wrong). This limit was probably decided at a time where it was more of a concern of taking up server resources than one of space and it likely worked out well.

However, the months old update to Tequatl and the two new world events, the Marionnete and Wurm, have made AFKers and the space they take up a real concern now that we realize how small the map limit is when we need almost everyone there participating for those events. The overflow system was designed for active players trying to access popular content, not to encourage AFKing as a sure way to stay in your server’s map.

I doubt this needs to be said for most people, but just so there is no understanding, I believe a person that actually wants to participate, explore and fight in a map has more right to be there than people who sit there and do absolutely nothing until the meta event. They either do this by playing chicken with the timer, waiting forty five to fifty five minutes before pressing a few buttons that buys them an hour more AFK time, or programming a macro to run their character around in circles or shoot at a wall until they come back. Heck with a macro, they could just place a paperweight on the 1 key. But in any case, these players are not contributing anything, often taking up space for 2+ hours before the event. And sometimes they don’t even do the event (seen it plenty of times), just hoping being there will be enough to get them credit and a reward.

That being said, I can think of two good changes to help out the current overflow woes and AFK anger, which I see with this new content just as much as I saw it at Tequatl.

The first would be to lower the AFK kick time from 1 hour to 10 minutes. There are legitimate reasons to step away from your computer, but if they take more than 10 minutes, it’s likely important enough that you won’t mind being kicked back to login.

The second would be to upgrade/increase/enhance/etc screening for macro usage on world boss maps such as these. While macros can be used anywhere, the absolute laziest way someone can successfully AFK until an event is to program a simple macro that moves their character in a small, simple motion/action or range of motions in a relatively safe area of the map. Narrowing down the maps (Sparkfly Fen, Bloodtide Coast and Lornar’s Pass), the type of preprogrammed action and their likely locations (Splintered Coast WP for Tequatl, Firthside Vigil WP for the Wurm and any of lanes 1-5 at False River Valley for the Marionnete) should hopefully make it much easier to catch these people.

The end result of this would hopefully see a lot less AFKers at these events, giving the people there at least a fighting chance at their event.

I submitted request #290447 to support earlier this afternoon. While the responses were admirably quick, the first within one and a half hours and the second in less than an hour, they are also somewhat…concerning.

In my initial notes, among other things, I mentioned I had run GW2 with the command line -diag and had the results, but also had no way to attach it to the ticket on the support site and asked how they wanted me to get that to them. The response was somewhat odd and is copied below:

Thank you for bringing this issue to my attention today.
I would like to gather some information in regards to your computer and connection. To get this information, please do the following:
1. Navigate to your Guild Wars 2 folder.
2. Right-click on “Gw2.exe” and select “Create Shortcut.”
3. Right-click on “Gw2.exe – Shortcut” and select “Rename.”
4. Rename this file to “Guild Wars 2 Diagnostic.”
5. Right-click on “Guild Wars 2 Diagnostic” and select “Properties.”
6. Locate the “Target” line and add the following to the end " -diag" Your target line should look like this: “C:\Games\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe” -diag
7. Click OK to save your changes.
8. Open “Guild Wars 2 Diagnostic” to start the test.
Once completed, please click “View Results” and copy and paste this into your ticket.
Once we receive it, we’ll have a better idea of how to resolve your issue.

Obviously, I already knew how to run the diagnostic report, had the results and this information was clearly listed in my notes. It just seemed weird to get the directions to do so again, especially worded in such a way that implied I hadn’t even heard of the procedure before. However, since it also told me how to get the info to them, I shrugged it off and simply sent the requested info.

But the reply I got to that one made it clear something was definitely wrong. Another part of my initial request included this info:

“…I connected directly through the modem, disabled all services and start-up programs and rebooted my pc before playing.”

And here is support’s second response (I cut off the end to save space):

Thank you for bringing this issue to my attention today.
Please try using the instructions below to prevent background applications from automatically starting with Windows as this can often causes issues like the one you reported. Please note, this command will not uninstall any applications from your computer. All MSCONFIG does is prevent these applications from automatically starting when Windows boots up.
To do this:
1. Press and hold the Windows key and then hit the R key. This should bring up the Run dialog box.
2. Type “MSCONFIG” without the quotes, and click “OK.” This should open the System Configuration Utility.
3. Click on the “Services” tab and check the “Hide All Microsoft Services” check box near the bottom, then click the “Disable All” button. (You MUST click “Hide all Microsoft Services”)
4. Next go to the “Startup” tab and click the “Disable All” button.
5. Once these items are all disabled, click the “OK” button and you will get a prompt to restart your computer. Please restart your computer.

Obviously, I had already tried that. While I obviously can’t say this with certainty, I’d make an educated guess the Support member either did not understand or did not read my ticket and may not have even read the diagnostic info I gave them.

As a Support Analyst myself, I understand that when dealing with new issues, support has to start from square one because many problems end up being very easy to solve. Rebooting fixes more than you think. ;-) But I mentioned this was my third ticket on this issue and gave a detailed list of all error codes I had received and all troubleshooting steps I had tried.

I’m responding to the email, but considering what I got back the first two times, my hopes aren’t that high it will matter that much. Has anyone had a similar problem or is a forum moderator or dev able to help me resolve my issue? (request #290447)

While I believe the learning curve is far too sharp, as both new events are lacking the informative UI instructions we see in other meta events (yes, I see there are UI instructions, but they’re too vague to be useful), I do see promise for the content itself.

However, the amount of players that get to enjoy it is more limited than Arenanet seems to realize. For the players that get into their server’s map and are able to play the entire event, they at least have the chance to enjoy the event and get the rewards. But the hard limit on the number of players allowed to be connected to a map, the overflow system and server instability make it anywhere from frustrating to infuriating for everyone else.

No matter how much of the event you play or contribute to, if you get disconnected and can’t get back into the same map, you miss out on all rewards and many of the achievements. Even if you get disconnected and happen to be in a party with someone still connected, you can’t get back in from an overflow if the map’s hard cap/player limit has been reached. And while overflows can certainly complete this type of content (although it has shown to be far more difficult and less likely due to lack of organization) the overflow you get thrown into when you log back in has likely already failed the event because of lack of players when it started.

Arenanet needs to increase the player capacity on their maps or perform a major overhaul of the overflow system if they wish to keep releasing the type of content that requires this many organized players to even have a chance at succeeding. They also either need to fix their server stability (No, it’s not just my ISP or modem, check the bug forums) or add a feature that gives you the rewards/achievements of the map you DCed from when you log back in, probably with a requirement of some percentage of participation in the event.

And yes, I realize this can be abused, someone could close the game or pull out their ethernet cord halfway through an event, but I’m also tired of Arenanet punishing the rest of us just because people exploit. Deal with exploiters if you must, but let the rest of us at least try to enjoy the content and get the appropriate rewards for our contributions. This is a game. It’s supposed to be fun. So please let more than 200 people per server (I don’t know the exact cap) enjoy and get the rewards they earn from this type of content.

Dodging isn’t the problem for me either. It’s staying connected long enough to finish the event. Considering how many people I found in overflow reporting the same issue, I’d say the achievements need to take into account both loading screen times and the fact that the servers aren’t stable. And no, it’s not just me and my ISP. Check the bug forums. Connection issues have only been getting worse.

They either need to fix their servers or stop making achievements and boss fights that can be failed simply because the instance takes too long to load or you dc.

Same thing. I was in the TC server main map and got DCed. Same story as you, got back into an overflow where everyone said the same thing happened to them. Were you in TC or another server?

http://dulfy.net/2014/01/17/gw2-ready-up-skill-and-balance-developer-livestream-notes/

I tried a 4th time and still got the tonic I didn’t use as the result. However, I did find a reddit post from someone who claims to have crafted it, and there are now 9 tonics on the trading post instead of the 2 I saw when I created this thread, so it might be possible. But I think the reddit poster’s belief that it is a 1 in 3 chance is…overly optimistic. :-P

http://qq.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1tiox3/endless_dolyak_tonic_still_possible_to_get/

I lucked out and ended up being able to craft 2 of my 3 leftover frames from last year into tonics, so I didn’t run into the problem of only getting the Endless Toy Golem tonics out until a few tries in. I’ve got 2 Golem tonics now and it appears to let me put them in the forge with other tonics (I only have 2 others, so I can’t try the recipe again yet) but not with each other. Are you saying yours won’t let you forge the golem tonics just with other golem tonics or with the princess, soldier, ventari and griffon tonics as well?

Buttercup.5871:

I have now also created a support ticket, thank you for the suggestion. I did indeed have the gathering tools issue in mind, as ethics pointed out, when creating this post on the forum. I might be a crazy fool, but I have a feeling I’m not the only crazy fool, which is why I decided to create this thread.

You aren’t. It’s obvious people (including myself) wouldn’t have purchased the temporary pass if they knew a permanent pass was going to be offered.

I admit this may appear juvenile, so yes, flame all you want, but it’ll bug me if I don’t say anything.

While I by no means think I was the only one to find this feature or even the first to suggest it (I fully acknowledge I didn’t read the full 5 pages of the thread to see if anyone else had suggested it), it’s clear by your post in the main thread on this topic (second below mine in the link below) that you could easily see and very likely read my post.

While I think it was a good idea to create a new topic to highlight this workaround and make it easy for people to find (it’s not like they can find it by doing a search :-P ), I just think a simple thank you or acknowledgement would have been nice instead of claiming it was “your” workaround.

Like I said, juvenile…maybe. But common courtesy is a thing I have found lacking in both the game and forums of late and like I said…it bugs me.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/forum/Search-feature-not-working/3446899

Actually, it looks like someone else reported it as a bug 21 days ago.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/Endless-toymaker-s-tonic-forging-bugged/3364489

Buttercup.5871:

I reported it as being bugged:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/Endless-toymaker-s-tonic-forging-bugged/first#post3364489

Wasted a lot of gold and got zip. As in, always the rare fifth tonic you didn’t insert into the forge. Never exotic.

Here’s a workaround

Perform your search with Google instead, but start with the line “site:https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum”

Here is an example, if I were searching for posts related to tonics:

You would type “site:https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum tonic” into Goggle and click search. (ignore the fact that it is a link, I can’t remove it, disabling textile doesn’t help)

And here is a link to the results
(paste it into the address bar, clicking on it triggers the External Link Warning message and when it finally goes through it just takes you to the Google search page)

https://www.google.com/search?num=20&site=&source=hp&q=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fforum-en.guildwars2.com%2Fforum+tonic&oq=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fforum-en.guildwars2.com%2Fforum+tonic&gs_l=hp.12...1983.22585.0.25432.16.14.2.0.0.0.132.1033.12j2.14.0....0...1c.1.32.hp..7.9.656.G0sctEwol5E

While not perfect, I think the results are fairly good for having to use Google to search the site, especially considering I get zero results from the same search using the forum search bar.

Polishpk.2985:

I honestly thought that it was the recipes you throw into the forge. Already having Recipe: Endless Princess Doll Tonic, Recipe: Endless Toy Golem Tonic and Recipe: Endless Toy Soldier Tonic, I was a little dissapointed when I pulled up the Forge.

Would you suggest learning the recipes or perhaps selling them when they go up in price?

Polishpk – It depends on if you actually want the tonics for personal use, want to make them and throw them in the forge for a chance at the Endless Gift Dolyak tonic or just want more gold when the recipes go up in value.

BTW, tried a 3rd time and still got the 5th tonic I didn’t use. I haven’t seen anything on the forums about it and the wiki page hasn’t changed. Is any dev able to confirm if the recipe still works and possibly what the chances are of each outcome?

I know the recipe for this using the mystic forge (copied below from the wiki) but has anyone been able to craft one this year? I’ve tried twice so far and received the 5th tonic I didn’t put in each time. The wiki doesn’t tell you what the chances for each outcome are (and I haven’t had any luck finding that info anywhere else), so it could be just some bad luck. However, I did notice that, as of this post, there are only two Endless Gift Dolyak Tonic’s available on the trading post. From that, I’d hazard a guess that it is either in very high demand, can no longer be made or both, but I wondered if anyone else had any further info or thoughts on this.

Recipe

The recipe requires you to combine any four of the five following tonics:

Endless Toy Ventari Tonic
Endless Princess Doll Tonic
Endless Toy Soldier Tonic
Endless Plush Griffon Tonic
Endless Toy Golem Tonic

The Mystic Forge has a chance to produce an Endless Gift Dolyak Tonic, an Endless Toymaker’s Tonic or the fifth tonic you didn’t use as a material in the process.

A basic fact is that a 100 player zerg will steamroll over everything in it’s path. And what’s worse, there is no way to trim it down with guerrilla tactics as you would be able to do in a real conflict. I know that thought and at least one of these ideas has been mentioned before, but I believe all three together would at least give people a fighting chance against zergs and, quite frankly, make WvW a whole lot more interesting.

1. Allow people to hide. It’s difficult to surprise an opponent when they can see your server and rank tag floating above your hiding spot. I’d say if their point of view can see 10% or less of your character, the tag should be hidden.

2. Make transformation potions change your display name as well. While I agree it should not actually match any of the PvE creatures on the map, I believe it should come close. It’s fairly obvious if the bull walking towards you is not what it seems if it is called a "Tarnished Coast Scout:. :-P Something like “Suspicious Dolyak” or “Nosy Skelk” would probably work. This gives players another way to spy on or surprise opponents, but also gives the opposing side a fighting chance if they are paying close enough attention to their surroundings.

3. Don’t allow defeated opponents to be rezzed; only give them the option of respawning at a waypoint. Also, black out their screens. First, this allows guerrilla tactics to have some effect, encourages rezzing people in downed states and forces the commander and their zerg to make more tactical decisions than just “run around in a circle flipping everything with what is essentially an invincible army”. Second, it prevents dead players from providing tactical information in a manner that simply cannot be countered. Finally, it’s just plain more realistic. Zergs can exist, but they should not be an unstoppable force and I believe well planned guirilla tactics should be rewarded and just as successful as all other aspects of WvW. Being the side with the largest amount of people should not guarantee success and decide the outcome before the week even starts.

Anyway, just my 2 cents.

I originally posted my thoughts and ideas on this subject in two parts. The first part can be found here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Flamekissed/3281329

Here is a modified version of the second part. I also updated it based on new information learned since the initial post.

NOTE: This is not a duplicate post.

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS POST

But, as I said, I believe it is highly unlikely you will do either of those.

Now, I said there was no good way out of this. No matter what you do, someone will be unhappy. And hopefully you will learn from this situation and increase scrutiny during any approval processes you have in place before you put an item in the gem store.

But all that being said, I do believe there is one option that will be accepted as satisfactory by the majority of people involved; both devs and players alike. It was an option stated by a previous poster and I urge you to reconsider. The armor skin has already been taken down from the gem store. That’s fine, keep it down. But allow those that have already purchased it to keep it.

Many gem store items are only available for a limited amount of time. Players already know and accept this. Simply make that the case here as well. You avoid all refund related issues by simply employing the logic of a well-established practice you already have in place, that gem store items can sometimes be up for a limited time only. Everyone who purchased the armor will get to keep it, showing that you honor their purchases and appreciate their business. And it becomes like any other living story item or achievement, something that new players (or players that missed it) simply cannot get. It’s the same logic you use for not allowing people the chance to get previous LS achievements or items, so again, it’s something many people may not like, but it is expected.

The only group this solution does not address are the players who purchased T3 Human Cultural armor with in game gold. I believe you also owe them an apology and need to find some way to make up this error to them as well. But they are the ones who should be consulted on exactly what that would entail.

I would also like to point out this issue, selling reworked or previous rewards in the gem store, is something GW2 will likely need to make a companywide policy on in the near future. I only say this because it appears the same mistake was made again with the recent Mini Mr. Sparkles offer. You can read about it in other forums, but I believe the most important concept is being lost in the details. While I, like many, would love a Mini Mr. Sparkles, is that really fair to those that previously had what was thought of as a one-time-only exclusive item received for attending PAX 2013? Before you answer, think about any exclusive items you own. What if legendary skins, heritage armor and weapons skins or anything else you feel was hard earned were suddenly put up for all to buy or get as a bonus? I don’t think the offer should be retracted, as it has already been made and thus I believe they should honor it, so this in no way changes my current argument. I just think GW2 needs to learn from the Flamekissed and Mini Mr. Sparkles situations and try to avoid similar problems going forward.

GW2, you have the chance to show players you appreciate and respect their business…or that you don’t. Many of us have been loyal customers for a long time and lately, we’ve seen decisions made that have made us question if this is still the game we all grew to enjoy…or not. The steady rise of the gold cost of gem prices, the increase in gem store items that aren’t just for show, but actually provide an advantage, and the bug filled and lore ignoring Living Story given as a replacement for expansions, where many see a preference for quantity over quality that is geared more at attracting new customers than satisfying current one, have all made many of us wonder if GW2 is still worthy of our continued investment in both time and money.

Please, don’t make this the final straw for many of us. Respect your players and customers…or you will lose us.

Attached is a picture of my wife’s Asura crying because you took away her cool new armor. Instead, make her /cheer

You offered a product. You let people purchase it. You gave no indication that it was anything other than a permanent purchase, so they legitimately felt safe using or replacing other expensive items to fit the armor to their character. Then you took it away.

To make this fair to every player out there…you would have to go back in time. Sorry, but there is no good way out of this and you won’t convince the community otherwise. Here’s the 4 problems you have, as I see them:

- Some people spent RWM for gems for an armor skin specifically because they liked that skin
- Some of those used a number of other style, dye and transmutation items to match that skin to their character and current armor stats
- Some of those transmuted the skin onto already expensive armor
- One of your designers is either the unluckiest person in MMO history or, and I’m sorry to say much more likely, they decided to plagiarize the T3 Human Cultural armor in order to save time and/or money and merely added a few extra designs to its appearance to match the other Flame armor

Like I stated above, there is no good way out of this. You can ask people to wait to see what the new armor set is going to look like before voicing their opinions further. But even in your best case scenario, where the new set turns out looking fantastic and people either have a choice of getting the new set or getting their gems back, you haven’t actually solved any of the above problems.

Really, the only group that your stated solution solves the problem for are those that like the new armor set, spent gems they already had and/or don’t mind getting a refund in gems for just the armor skins. Everyone else will feel cheated, and rightly so. The only ways out of this are steps I would wager you are unlikely to take:

- Provide all players the option of gem or cash refunds for all gems used to buy the armor skins and refund all items or gold that was used by that player to setup or match the armor
- Reprimand, up to or including dismissal, the designer responsible. After all, this is plagiarism we are talking about. It’s a serious offense. People often lose their jobs in these situations.

CONTINUED IN THE NEXT POST (apparently your character limit of 5001 for posts has a bug you should look into as well, original complete post without this text was 4958 with spaces)

(Regular Version)

Here are the full quotes. Or you can read the whole Guild Wars 2 Design Manifesto here:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-wars-2-design-manifesto/

Guild Wars 2 Design Manifesto
by Mike O’Brien on April 27, 2010

“So if you love MMORPGs, you should check out Guild Wars 2. But if you hate traditional MMORPGs, then you should really check out Guild Wars 2. Because, like Guild Wars before it, GW2 doesn’t fall into the traps of traditional MMORPGs. It doesn’t suck your life away and force you onto a grinding treadmill; it doesn’t make you spend hours preparing to have fun rather than just having fun; and of course, it doesn’t have a monthly fee.”

“Finally, since combat is such a core part of the gameplay of any MMO, we’ve put a lot of emphasis into rethinking combat. So much of traditional MMO combat is rote and repetitive. You execute the same strategy over and over again, just augmented over time with better and better gear. After a while it starts to feel like you’re playing a spreadsheet. Combat needs to be about making creative choices, and it needs to feel immediate, active, and visceral. So we’ve put a huge focus on strengthening our combat, giving the player limitless choices, and providing the thrill and joy of being in combat.”

“It all gets back to our basic design philosophy. Our games aren’t about preparing to have fun, or about grinding for a future fun reward. Our games are designed to be fun from moment to moment.”

Feel free to read the whole article (especially if you believe or fear the above quotes are cherry picked), but I’m confident they capture both what I am trying to say and are reflective of the article as a whole.

From the very beginning, GW2 was against the concept of a “grinding treadmill” where “you spend hours preparing to have fun rather than just having fun.” That is the very definition of champ farming and farming in general. For champ farmers, the “combat is rote and repetitive” as “you execute the same strategy over and over again” until you’re not really doing more than “playing a spreadsheet.”

They wanted to give us more than other MMORPGs…and they did. And, assuming the original poster was correct (I have no reason to doubt him) then the president of the company understands the core problem, he just sounds tired of solving the same thing over and over again.

“…some people just like to farm and thats the way they play the game and if they patch this players will just find another way to make gold”

I understand that it can get frustrating. Basically, when they plug one “get rich quick” farming method, another will pop up to take its place. And that’s because you will always find players that want all the shinies, but simply can’t be bothered to put in any time, thought or effort to the task of acquiring them. Following the mindless champion zerg train fits their requirements nicely. “Run to target, press 1 once to auto-attack, loot when dead, run/WP to next target, /etc.”

However, it isn’t just balancing the game that the devs have to worry about. This is exactly the kind of mindless farming that attracts botters. I would be surprised if the gold and mat bots haven’t already been converted over to champ bots. With the champ train constantly running, all they have to do is sit a bot at the champ spawn and spam skill 1 and F. The train will ensure they get rezed and that the champ dies, thus giving them the reward. Any veteran of MMORPGs knows what happens to games when bots are allowed free reign. And GW2 has been pretty good about curbing bots, at least as much as they can.

Finally, the defeatist attitude of the president quote simply does not match what the devs have done so far. They’ve nerfed every other “get rich quick” and bot scheme players have been able to dream up so far, exploit or not. And considering the harassment by members of the champ train to anyone who dares kill one of “their champs” out of order, I very much doubt they will make an exception in this case.

Like I said, I don’t believe it’s a matter of if, only of when.

thefantasticg.3984:

RenoMiranda.2685:

Arenanet’s president said that they will try to leave the champion farming as it is for now. He said that some people just like to farm and thats the way they play the game and if they patch this players will just find another way to make gold. I dont think champion farming is going away in the bear future

Good. Thats the way it should be.

All of you that are kitten over people farming need to get over it. I enjoy the mindless zerging from champ to champ. Stop trying to ruin this game for other people with your terrible visions of how you want it.

(TL;DR version)

Here are some shortened quotes from the original Guild Wars 2 Design Manifesto.

Guild Wars 2 Design Manifesto
by Mike O’Brien on April 27, 2010

“…GW2 doesn’t fall into the traps of traditional MMORPGs. It doesn’t suck your life away and force you onto a grinding treadmill; it doesn’t make you spend hours preparing to have fun rather than just having fun…”

“…So much of traditional MMO combat is rote and repetitive. You execute the same strategy over and over again, just augmented over time with better and better gear. After a while it starts to feel like you’re playing a spreadsheet….”

“It all gets back to our basic design philosophy. Our games aren’t about preparing to have fun, or about grinding for a future fun reward. Our games are designed to be fun from moment to moment.”

This isn’t my vision, it’s theirs. I just happen to share it. And if you enjoy the mindless zerging, see my previous post. I don’t think it is out of line to ask you to be respectful of other players if you stick with GW2 or to suggest alternative games that you might be happier playing.

I’m pretty sure it’s not really a matter of if the Devs will nerf champ trains and champ farming, only a matter of when and how. “But this is the easiest way to make money!” or “but this is the easiest way to level up!” are the very reasons it will be nerfed. Any good MMORPG will make sure there isn’t an “easiest” way to do either of those things by nerfing them to maintain balance. GW2 has done this plenty of times in the past, the most recent being the champs in world events. Devs seem to consistently underestimate the greed of the player base when creating new content, but they always end up nerfing any of the “get rich quick” methods eventually.

And one thing that must not be understated is the way farmers treat other players. Whether it is champ farmers, duelists in PvP or GvG in WvW, many players seem to feel a sense of entitlement and think they can simply create their own rules for the map. They then verbally abuse or harass players that don’t follow “their” rules. This kind of behavior is completely unacceptable (even by many farmers who have posted her, which I thank you for), against the ToS and not only guarantees the nerf, but probably pushes it higher on their to-do list.

So, the nerf itself being a forgone conclusion, I will simply offer opinions on how I think it could be done to the greatest effect and with the least interference in gameplay:

1. Make champ bag drops dependent on player level and monster level. If the player is 30-40 levels above the monster (the exact number is open for debate), no bag drops. That large of a gap should prevent disruptions of legitimate game play and exploration in most later areas while getting the lazy lvl80s out of Queensdale and into more lvl appropriate content.

2. Make the drop rate once per champ per character per day. This way, players can still play the content, but they can’t simply farm it all day long to the exclusion of everything and everyone else. Considering champ trains even have negative effects in later areas as well (disrupting guild challenges and making the first phase or two of mega events more difficult because the farmers take up space on the map but don’t feel it’s worth going to the event until it’s more than halfway done) I don’t feel this is all that drastic.

3. Require lvl appropriate content on Daily and Monthly Achievements (excluding mentor, because that is the whole point of that one). This is slightly branching out, but I still think relevant and related. All you have to do is go to Queensdale when the Daily and Monthly reset and you’ll see why. I’d bet on double digits for the number of overflows created, at least. And a lvl80 character killing a lvl5 Champion or completing the “Gather apples” Event isn’t really an “achievement”, especially when he has help from 30-40 other lvl80s. If these achievements are to have any meaning, they need to be somewhat challenging. And if we want Queensdale to stop getting mobbed by lvl80s on a daily and monthly basis, we need to stop giving players such an easy way to finish their achievements without any real risk or effort.

And last, a message to all the champ farmers:

Yes, you are free to play the game as you wish, but that philosophy loses credibility when your gameplay starts to negatively interfere with someone else’s. If you aren’t a troll that feeds on that frustration, you may want to keep reading. (If you are, feel free to stop here) GW2 has many diverse ways to get both gold and experience. Try exploring them and you may find yourself having fun. After all, that IS what the game is all about; a huge world of diverse content.

However, if you really prefer grinding/farming and if you are really into GW2, may I make a suggestion? Please just be courteous to others and keep in mind what effect you may be having. Farming/grinding in instanced content has no negative impact (unless you develop a superiority complex in your LFG messages and start excluding people based on class or equipment). But farming/grinding in persistent areas has a possible effect on everyone else in that area. Just something to keep in mind.

And if you aren’t that attached to GW2 and prefer a game where you grind at one thing over and over again until you are declared the winner, GW2 may simply not be for you. And I mean that in an honest and sincere way. You really might be happier playing another game designed in exactly the way you wish to play and be rewarded. I’ve heard good things about Minecraft, Farmville, Treasure Diving, Sims, etc. There are many such games out there, spanning old consoles right up to the newest smartphone apps. If your goal from playing a game is happiness/satisfaction, and you get that from farming/grinding, why not save yourself all the other effort involved in GW2 and simply play a game where farming/grinding is the central theme?

The strategy for beating tequatl is now well established, so beating him is possible. However, there are several factors which lead to the majority of tequatl fights ending in failure, often before even getting him to 75%.

The first is the overflow servers. Lately, the commanders have done a great job or organizing the player base based on the known strategy. However, being from multiple servers, they players still lack cohesion and they do not stay organized for long. Non-commanders start shouting out orders of what they think needs to be done and it goes downhill from there. And those are just the players actively participating. You also have the AFKers (likely people trying to get into the main server) and trolls. I’ll address trolls later, but AFKers hurt the event further by taking the place of someone who is willing to actively play. It’s even worse when they are at the event site, because they are added to the scaling without contributing. And last but not least, there is the matter of getting out of overflow and into your main server, a 5-7 hour endeavor. If you go to school or work for a living, this is insurmountable. And even for those that have that kind of time, waiting 5-7 hours to have a legitimate chance to beat 15 minutes worth of content is ridiculous.

Well, what is a problem without a solution. My solution to overflow, and specifically the ability to get out of it, is to reset just that map every day at 8:00pm PST/5:00pm EST. You can make it lore appropriate if you want; a hurricane that blows everyone off the map, the batteries exploded due to damage and overuse and the map had to be evacuated or tequatl simply sneezed. In any case, lore appropriate or not, this will give everyone a chance to log into the main servers at least once a day. Is it the perfect solution? No. But it’s the best one I can think of for the map/overflow system we are working with here.

Now, I’m not abandoning the overflows entirely. I think they should have just as good a chance to beat tequatl as the main servers. But ArenaNet created an event that requires 80-100 people to complete and can be forced to fail by 2 people in turrets. Whether they are afk, trolls or simply don’t want to follow the commander’s directions, that is the failure of the event right there. You can’t beat him without all the turrets playing their roles.

Well, there is a way to fix that as well. Create vigil, priory and order of whisper consumable/bundle/environmental weapons that duplicate skills 2 and 3 on the turrets. You could call the skill 2 item an experimental rail gun and the skill 3 item a elixir gun, but the names aren’t important. Whether you make these 1 shot, 10 shot or infinite ammo items, both with the same recharge time as the turret skills, This will allow the map to have an alternative if the turrets are not doing their job, for whatever reason. These are necessary skills for a win, but in no way make the game too easy. You still have to DPS the dragon, protect the turrets and protect the batteries to win and putting out these consumables takes away players from those key jobs, so it does come with a cost. However, I think it will at least give people a chance to win, especially in overflow servers where they can take all the help they can get.

ArenaNet,

Now that that chapter of the living story is over, I think this is a fair question to ask.

Why was aetherblade farming during invasions never nerfed?

This was not a bug, but I consider it an exploit because it negatively impacted players actually trying to succeed at the event (if enough people were farming, the event failed because there weren’t enough people to fight the minions) and gave an unfair advantage to those that participated in it (40-60 champ boxes per event for farmers vs. 5-10 for non-farmers). I base those last two stats on what I got personally and what farmers often bragged about getting. This gives them a huge head start in MF and t7 mats if they waited to open the boxes until the update.

I understand why the players would take advantage of it. Nothing is more simple to understand than greed. But what I don’t understand is ArenaNet ignoring it.

GW2 has nerfed exploits far less profitable or damaging than this on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. We are used to it by now and, unlike some of the more unpopular or random nerfs we sometimes see, this one was even expected by the majority of the map chats I read as soon as it started to become an issue.

So why was this one ignored?