Guild Wars 2

I was getting that several times until I just kept launching the game over and over again, and it finally worked. I wasn’t getting a memory error, though; it was something else, but it was on launch that I was getting the crash error. There was another thread from a few days ago that suggested that Game Booster was the problem, but I’ve run with GB in the past without error, and it happened to NOT be running when the crash occurred, tonight, so I’m not really sure what’s causing this problem, or what randomly caused it to suddenly work.

I’m holding out for the Mursaat, personally. I’m bored with the Scarlet content. I never got bored with any encounter with the Mursaat in Prophecies.

Here’s a better idea: Continue to expand it. It makes for a fun, side-quest distraction. No reason for the DEVs to squander resources on something like that. A single instance jumping puzzle that’s holiday-themed I can understand. This is a homage to times long ago; the rewards are a mere bonus.

1UP.

Why would anyone not make a fun distraction like this permanent? Seems like a waste of development effort, time, and talent to make something this uniquely enjoyable as a mini-game, only to vaporize it after a month.

Besides…there are some of us (myself included) currently deployed who don’t have dependable internet to enjoy this kind of content. The videos are sure fun to watch, and my wife is having a blast with this back home, so I yearn to give this a shot, too, based on the feedback I’ve read. Sadly, I might get 4 days (or less) at best.

Ganpot.3879:

JarekCyphus.7068:

Rather than add more skills for weapons, add new weapon archtypes (such as whips, flail, lances, etc.) to further diversify the combat. Exhaust the variety of weapons that can exist in a fantasy game, then expand the table of skills with each weapon.

As much as I would love new weapon categories, adding them wouldn’t have as big of an impact. Players still wouldn’t be able to adapt their weapon choice to their overall strategy, which means they would be pigeon-holed into less than ideal skills (there is usually one skill per weapon which is blah). By giving players a limited array of swap-able skills, the devs can increase build variety enormously, and cater to GW1 veterans (who miss the skill system). Plus, adding new skills would take (marginally) less work than adding new weapon types (because they wouldn’t have to create new meshes and weapon graphics).

This isn’t 2003; creating new character models is still hard, but creating new weapon meshes and textures is not half as hard as it once was. I don’t know how you fail to see the “impact” new weapons would have, though. Not only are you getting flavor variety, but you’re adding some diversity in design. That’s a far greater impact than simply adding a new weapon skill here or there.

I think overall, a healthy balance between new weapon archtypes and skill diversity with existing weapons should be struck to deepen the overall player experience, but I don’t necessarily agree with your “pigeon-hole” argument. I can count on one hand the number of weapons across ALL professions with a worthless skill, and most of them are underwater weapons. It’s because people still either don’t understand their classes/weapons, or they don’t like them.

I used to have that kind of backwards thinking about the Guardian’s staff, until I decided to give an exotic staff I picked up in the Cursed Shores a second try. It made the difference between group survival and excess aggro in two fractal runs, and several fights against the Risen Wizard at the Arah Gate, and all it cost was a little practice.

Ganpot.3879:

What concerns me is that one area has been completely ignored in the “Months Ahead” blog and video. Class skills and balance is what I’m referring to, and that area tends to be fairly important.

Gameplay becomes extremely monotonous at higher levels (or after extended play sessions), because players unlock all the skills they really want by the time they are level 35. So first of all, you need to massively increase weapon skills’ variety. The easiest way to do this is to create another 5 skills per weapon (10 if you’re feeling generous) and allow players to slot whatever skills they want into the different slots (you might want to differentiate slot 1 from slots 2-5, since slot 1s tend to be auto-attack chains). Adding this would increase replay-ability across every area of the game (PvE, PvP, and WvW).

I’ve also heard rumors that the balancing department consists of 2 people. If true, that is abysmal; an MMO has to have fairly balanced (and fun) combat if it wants to retain a player base. You’re just shooting yourselves in the foot. That would also explain why some classes (cough Ranger cough) still haven’t been properly fixed months after launch.

Regardless of how many people are working on balance issues, you need to pick up the pace. Players won’t wait years for their class to become usable (or reasonably glitch-free). Every class has an abundance of useless traits (both major and minor), and most classes have some near-useless weapons. Speaking from personal experience, I was extremely close to quitting the game altogether after waiting months without noticeable changes to my main class (Ranger); I still might (re-grinding to 80 is a pain).

Rather than add more skills for weapons, add new weapon archtypes (such as whips, flail, lances, etc.) to further diversify the combat. Exhaust the variety of weapons that can exist in a fantasy game, then expand the table of skills with each weapon.

Fiontar.4695:

I’m very glad that they intend to eventually allow dailies to be completed by choosing from a “bucket” of achievements, rather than forcing players to do a specific set of tasks. Expand that to Monthlies as well and the game will be much better as a result.

I hope this will be prioritized to be part of the new system as early as possible. IMO, the new variations of daily tasks should not be introduced with out this part of the equation. I don’t want to miss out on dailies because the list has something I can’t/won’t be able to complete. The current dailies can be completed by people with fairly limited time and by characters in any level range. It’s important that doesn’t change.

Nail on the head, right there.

Happening to both me and my wife on Tarnished Coast, as well. Game is unplayable, because we DC within 30 seconds of playing.

Scar Rufo.7935:

haha the disconnects have made my work on the daily’s a joke too, what next?

I actually consider myself lucky that there was enough time between needing only the 5 events and the first DC of the night to not roll back that progress. I think I’ll just wait for things to settle down and try to finish them, later. Annoyed that my Renown Heart got undone, though.

Soulstar.7812:

JarekCyphus.7068:

ALLY COMBOS are clearly broken. I do believe this has been addressed by ColinJohanson, already, but do not let an effort to fix this renew an urge to stick it back into the weekly rotation. It does not belong in a daily.

Hey genius, have a Engineer fire a flamethrower at your feet while you fire a projectile…

Burning shot.
OMKG a Combo…

YOU’RE WELCOME

HEY GENIUS! It’s Broken.

YOU’RE Welcome! Do us a favor next time and post something actually constructive.

Oh man my side hurts from laughing too hard! This is top stuff!

Wasselin.1235:

I can’t believe the quality control is so bad at ANet that every single patch has so many bugs, many of which never truly get fixed.

Notice also that the game’s economy is so badly inflated that Abyss dye is now going for 22G+?

Dodge and heal both worked fine for me; just working on events, now. Go fight something big like a Pinesoul and dodge their big lumbering attacks; it’s super easy! Then just rez all the NPC corpses that litter the battlefields of events.

Kumu Honua.2751:

Fractals are totally fubar too. Many times people don’t join in the fractal, or when they do afterwards. They enter the fractal dead and need to be rezzed.

If you have Lava from the shaman and wipe. It lasts for an HOUR and cannot be removed meaning you die over and over and over. Only option is to reset via lab or 4/3/2/1 man it at that point.

That last part was rather funny.

Good info. Will add it to the list, thanks.

Anet Unleashed this patch like a plague on an unsuspecting populace. It is rife with socially-rebuked changes to dailies, bugs, and random client disconnects. Let’s take a look at what we know:

DAILIES

• Nice that they change, not that they force grouping—see note on ally combos
• The Evade daily on the rotation is a handy thing to keep in the rotation; it teaches discipline and helps hone reflexes in this game’s combat design. Smart pass.
• Ally Combos are covered by an Achievement called “Teamwork Gets it Done,” so outside of being a Monthly, something like that has no place in a Daily. Players don’t always want to group, and that gates dailies, which should be geared toward the average nine-to-fiver with a life and a houseful of mouths to feed.
• Crafting, as a daily, is a pointless, grindy duty that’s irrelevant to a trailblazing level 80 completing the map. Gathering, on the other hand, is something that impacts your whole account, and is ideal for a daily.
• Why are underwater kills needed for dailies? That’s gating, and forces players to seek out a specific region in which to dole out their combat prowess, rather than simply play the game normally. Kill variety or not, sometimes you simply “happen upon a lake” that satisfies that need. Don’t force it.

BUGS

• ALLY COMBOS are clearly broken. I do believe this has been addressed by ColinJohanson, already, but do not let an effort to fix this renew an urge to stick it back into the weekly rotation. It does not belong in a daily.
• Dodging is a little hit and miss, now. This is either from lag or a client hiccup; sometimes a knockdown blow will still hit and throw you to the floor, despite seeing “Evade” pop up over your character. Still, may be lag.
• by Kumu Honua.2751 There are fractal zoning issues that are preventing players from joining; when they do join, they zone in dead.

There are more, I’m sure, so they’ll be added as they’re reported, thanks!

DISCONNECTS

• As the emboldened subject heralds, there are some unusual disconnects happening, tonight, particularly on the Tarnished Coast. They make no fanfare of stalled skills or jogging in place—the game simply disconnects you to the character select screen.
• Following a reconnect to the game, some of the content is rolled back a few steps. It was noted by a few peers that their Renown Hearts had rolled back a few steps, or even had their completed Renown Hearts undone by 10% or so.

So that’s what is on the table, so far. The disconnect issue is clearly a gamebreaking issue that sets players back a few notches, and needs to be addressed, first. Colin clearly addressed the combo problem by taking it out of the rotation, but consider the notes above. I play this game to play with friends, but sometimes that’s not always possible. I lead a demanding professional life, and I don’t always have time to group, but I was always able to squeeze time in for those old dailies. Don’t fix it if it isn’t broken. The rotation is nice, but don’t force “grindy” activities. Reward diversity, but don’t force us into a cage. Reward teamwork (see events), but don’t force grouping for the sake of a skill best honed as a larger group, rather than a pairing.

I’m amused every time a player spends 100 gold and suddenly thinks they’re a subject matter expert on all things Guild Wars.

Holy hand grenades…

…I just rendered a humorous mental image of this silencing the spammers in Lion’s Arch.

Edge.4180:

One of the main characters in the Guild Wars 2 novel “Ghosts of Ascalon” used a two-handed axe as his weapon of choice. I was disappointed not to see that weapon available within the game (the irony being that the character from the novel is).

This. Good attention to detail, by the way.

A long staple of ArenaNet’s success in development is the implementation of weapon skins and/or archtypes that further diversify the flavor of the gameplay in their MMOGs.

Battle Axes, Flails, Whips, Katana, Halberds, etc. all seem to be ideal fits for the design and combat flair of Guild Wars 2.

Time Magazine. Since when are they Subject Matter Experts on Video Games?

Oreoz.2573:

JarekCyphus.7068:

Siobhan.3582:

Mirta.5029:

Ned Stark.9356:

Mirta.5029:

kKagari.6804:

Mirta.5029:

kKagari.6804:

How has the game gone uphill then? There are less people playing and everyone is shuffling themselves to that new dungeon. So much harder to get a group to do any PvE content that is non dungeon.

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/6915/99384436.png
http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/9392/52397020.png

There’s just as much people playing as there was.
If I want to do an event, all I need to do is yell about it on t

he map chat. I’m seeing plenty of people and we got new content. How did it go downhill?

Actually, this was explained by an Arenanet employee that it isn’t indicative of how many players are actively online at that time.

I’m referring to how before Nov15, there was the ever present issue of player congestion in Orr, and that there was simply no reason to go elsewhere in the game. Arenanet’s solution, to introduce FotM, simply solidifies this problem by adding another tier of loot only accessible via one dungeon in the game, with horrendous grind. There’s simply no-one in the mid level areas, and with good reason too.

Then why am I actually seeing people in the mid level areas? No matter what zone I went to there were still people doing events with me. There is still the same population. In level 70-80 zone people are still doing Claw of Jormag in big numbers. You can catch groups doing events in level 50 zones… The only less populated place is 2/3 maps of Orr and even then I’ve seen 6 people there. Starter areas are booming in population too.

I want to see a time stamp on those photos or your just making crap up. Anyone can post a photo and claim it’s from a certain time when it doesn’t have a time stamp.

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/6718/46261331.png
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/9786/47349487.png

I included my calendar into it while printscreening. If you want you can a) check it for yourself b) I can runout into a random zone and photograph people for you.

They can change the number of people to make it show high at anytime though.

If numbers dip you can change high at 2000 to 1250 to high to give the impression of volume. Numbers lie

Fortunately, the contested waypoints around the Straits of Devastation don’t. Even if the game servers WERE full, it doesn’t change the fact that everyone’s funneling into the fractal dungeons now, rather than helping their fellow players achieve exotic sets in Orr.

This effect alone is pushing players out the door. Anyone who thinks this game is going anywhere BUT down is out of their minds. All but five people in my guild have stopped logging in over the course of the last two weeks. According to the posts of others in this thread, I am not alone in this plight.

The demographics are pretty telling.

Orr isn’t empty due to Fractals. I can almost guarantee it.

Orr is empty because Orr never works. That’s why.

Funny, because everyone on Tarnished Coast was running it prior to the release of FotM; kitten near everyone who had been since launch was wearing full Armageddon or better.

Clearly, it works well enough to accomplish what needs done for now.

GregT.4702:

JarekCyphus.7068:

f a fish equates to the disposition of one’s opinion? I just don’t see your logic there.

He was trolling; it was an obtuse kind of humour making use of sarcasm to expose the ridiculousness of the OP’s argument.

Unfortunately all the posts immediately following it that pointed that out were infracted but the original post was left alone.

shrug

Kinda hard to tell with people, anymore. I was debating with someone in another thread about costing them “personal time” by wearing MF gear in fractals. Yes. Players are seriously butthurt in a non-subscription game over a matter of “minutes.”

I may be in my thirties, but I’m not a parent, yet I still feel there are a large number of players in this game who need to go “play” outside…

Siobhan.3582:

Mirta.5029:

Ned Stark.9356:

Mirta.5029:

kKagari.6804:

Mirta.5029:

kKagari.6804:

How has the game gone uphill then? There are less people playing and everyone is shuffling themselves to that new dungeon. So much harder to get a group to do any PvE content that is non dungeon.

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/6915/99384436.png
http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/9392/52397020.png

There’s just as much people playing as there was.
If I want to do an event, all I need to do is yell about it on t

he map chat. I’m seeing plenty of people and we got new content. How did it go downhill?

Actually, this was explained by an Arenanet employee that it isn’t indicative of how many players are actively online at that time.

I’m referring to how before Nov15, there was the ever present issue of player congestion in Orr, and that there was simply no reason to go elsewhere in the game. Arenanet’s solution, to introduce FotM, simply solidifies this problem by adding another tier of loot only accessible via one dungeon in the game, with horrendous grind. There’s simply no-one in the mid level areas, and with good reason too.

Then why am I actually seeing people in the mid level areas? No matter what zone I went to there were still people doing events with me. There is still the same population. In level 70-80 zone people are still doing Claw of Jormag in big numbers. You can catch groups doing events in level 50 zones… The only less populated place is 2/3 maps of Orr and even then I’ve seen 6 people there. Starter areas are booming in population too.

I want to see a time stamp on those photos or your just making crap up. Anyone can post a photo and claim it’s from a certain time when it doesn’t have a time stamp.

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/6718/46261331.png
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/9786/47349487.png

I included my calendar into it while printscreening. If you want you can a) check it for yourself b) I can runout into a random zone and photograph people for you.

They can change the number of people to make it show high at anytime though.

If numbers dip you can change high at 2000 to 1250 to high to give the impression of volume. Numbers lie

Fortunately, the contested waypoints around the Straits of Devastation don’t. Even if the game servers WERE full, it doesn’t change the fact that everyone’s funneling into the fractal dungeons now, rather than helping their fellow players achieve exotic sets in Orr.

This effect alone is pushing players out the door. Anyone who thinks this game is going anywhere BUT down is out of their minds. All but five people in my guild have stopped logging in over the course of the last two weeks. According to the posts of others in this thread, I am not alone in this plight.

The demographics are pretty telling.

alcopaul.2156:

Aoshi.4785:

mulch.2586:

2 million + accounts.

Fewer than 1 million forums users

Therefore a minority. Cuz that’s what it means.

Pretty simple really. /thread

do you have to eat all the fishes in the sea to know what fish tastes like?

you just need to eat one to 2 fishes.

Because the taste of a fish equates to the disposition of one’s opinion? I just don’t see your logic there.

Sleepy.2647:

JarekCyphus.7068:

I’ve run FotM in both MF gear and Pow/Pre gear, and the result is the same every time: situational awareness keeps myself and my team alive. Our skills get us through it, not our gear.

Trying to even compare level 10 players to level 80s wearing MF is a silly argument, by the way. Not even comparable.

The result is the same? Don’t tell me jokes please… Run the same 5 players with everyone using MF gear and then do it with proper gear, the result will be the same…“dungeon completed”, the difficulty and time spent won’t be the same.

The fact is i have full MF gear, wearing it halves my damage output.
I didn’t compare lvls 10 with MF players, but how is it any different choosing to not want MFers than not wanting lvls 10 in your group?

Stop making stuff up, Sleepy. Seriously. The time disparity is negligible. If a matter of a few minutes is that big of a deal for you, then you need to seriously re-evaluate the time you’re spending in a free to play game. Really. This crap needs to stop getting blown out of proportion that a player or two wearing full MF is creating a difference in tens of minutes for completion time, because it doesn’t.

Com’on, man.

TabMorte.5297:

Sleepy> I share loot with my guildies (we all do) and anyone else I party up with, and also come loaded up with foods and potions which which I’m always happy to share and more than make up for any buffs and add more for everyone and as I already said, I run two sets of gear at this point, one with one without, but I’ll be the one who decides which I wear at any given time, not anyone else.

Shall we start a rant next about how people who use their solo skills in dungeons are selfish too because they’re only buffing themselves and not the whole party? Oh maybe people who are playing Elementalists are not suitable party mates either cause they’re squishy?

You’re idea that there’s ONLY ONE WAY to support the party is frankly wrong. As I said there are only two things that are important in a dungeon – that everyone helps and that everyone has fun.

So maybe next time you’ll miss out on a player that knows the dungeon you’re doing super well and could guide your group through it with out needing to be buffed to the eyeballs and everyone could have gotten more loot? You’ll never know.

This x 1000. Nail on the head.

Jasher.6580:

JarekCyphus.7068:

Funny how that first Fractal group I ran with still doesn’t know I was wearing two pieces of level 74 mastercraft armor, lol.

snickers to self

“These guys have no idea that these encounters would be a lot easier for everyone if I was wearing better gear.”… haha… no way for them to tell really… and I’m getting RICHER with my magic find gear too… accomplished look on face

let me post this on the forums to prove a non existent point

For the record… leaving the truth unexposed only propagates ignorance. It doesn’t make bad players better, it only protects them. Under-performing in the name of “freedom” while engaging in a group activity is a funny way of looking at things… since you are in essence encroaching on the time of 4 other real life people.

Funny how your only retort to an expression of one’s liberty to play how they will is to simply mock it, in the name of your personal time. Since you’re going to make that argument: What are you doing every time you deny a competent player in sub-optimal gear a position in a dungeon crawl? Not only are you wasting time, but you’re fostering a hostile community that makes running dungeons with you undesirable by anyone other than the other elitists who gravitate toward you. I’ve a reality check for you: it’s very lonely at the top.

If you’re honestly convinced that the stat disparity between a set of level 80 MF gear and a level 80 set of (in your opinion) optimal gear is so much that it creates a time spread of minutes (which it doesn’t), then you seriously need to re-evaluate your time spent in this game. This isn’t WoW. While gear is important for the HIGHEST difficulties (and only such) of dungeons, they’re completely irrelevant on the stepping stones toward becoming a dungeon crawler. If your only methodology is to surround yourself in the elitism of powergamers and glory hound your way to the top, then I spare no pity for you when they grow weary of the game’s stagnance, and all the “sub-optimally” geared players you forsook deny you your position in the queue.

Would truly be an ironic way to bring things full circle.

I can’t help but feel like loot is being rationed to pander to Anet’s breadwinners by enticing players to buy gold with gems…

…and it’s not just dyes either.

mapokl.3167:

I noticed that dyes don’t drop or drop very rarery in higher lvl zones (70+) but got them at the same rate as earlier in lower zones (up to lvl 50).

It’s not that i kill more enemies or collect more plants there but in Brisban Wildlands i got 2 dyes in hour of play, when in Orr i played for 6-7 hours and got none. I think that there is mechanism to encourage farming outside Orr.

Or more simply place of dye in drop list changed (lowered) so now blue/green override it. Don’t know how exactly drop works, but i think there is rating system. Bigger score = more and better items. And since place of dyes lowered you would have to actually have lower score, or you would get blue/green that is higher on drop list. If this is case, mf and better enemies actually decrease drop rate of dyes(low score) and increase drop rate of rarer equip (better score). It’s like you want to collect whites but because of your good score game drops you only blue and greens.

It sounds to me like they went for your idea with the first time, when they FUBAR’ed it to make the drops too fast. Now they’re too inconsistent. They should have just left it alone. It was fine the way it was before they screwed with it the first time.

Draygo.9473:

JarekCyphus.7068:

Draygo.9473:

What anet did to the dye drop rate is set it back, after they accidentally increased it. They arent looking to steal all your monies.

I STRONGLY disagree. Abyss could be bought around 5-6 gold in September. Now it fluctuates between 14-16 gold. That’s overkill. So what if the dyes are needed to create the Bifrost? Did we really need to make that grind ever more of a treadmill? Dyes are otherwise COSMETIC items. They don’t need such a low drop rate.

I have three various low level toons I’m currently grinding, and I’m hardly seeing this “better rate” people speak of anywhere. It’s very inconsistent; for the past two weeks it’s been that I’ll have one day out of the week where I’ll have four abrupt drops in an hour or two, and then never see another dye for the rest of the week.

It needs to be fixed. There’s NO WAY it’s working as intended.

The price of 15-16 g now has nothing to do with why it was 5-6 gold in september.

It was 5-6 gold in sept, because in september people had less money. Plus demand for it was lower, as people tend to go after vanity things after they complete stat related thigns

Hardly a compelling argument, since the price of it never changed until AFTER the November fix. People selling Abyss kept the number high during the FUBAR drops BECAUSE they knew it was broken and it would eventually get fixed. Inflation does not surge the price of a drop 300% in three months, unless the game’s population is diving as fast as the post-FotM skeptics believe.

Even then, 300% is a bit much in less than a month’s time after a “fix.”

Sleepy.2647:

JarekCyphus.7068:

And continue fostering an elitist dungeon crawl mentality based entirely on ignorance? No thanks.

Ignorance is arguing that wearing full MF gear is fine and doesn’t make your team any worse.
Either way, isn’t it like that after all? I bet you wouldn’t group up with lvls 10 to do Fractals, how is that any different?
I rarely see anyone asking for full exotic gear to run dungeons, funny thing is that even green gear is much superior to exotic MF gear.

I’ve run FotM in both MF gear and Pow/Pre gear, and the result is the same every time: situational awareness keeps myself and my team alive. Our skills get us through it, not our gear.

Trying to even compare level 10 players to level 80s wearing MF is a silly argument, by the way. Not even comparable.

Dyes were a part of my “completionist” habits I picked for GW2. I am keen on what drop rates they had, each time. I know what they were in September. I know what they were when they broke it. I know what they are now that they’ve “fixed it.”

It doesn’t feel like fixing. It feels like rationing.

Draygo.9473:

What anet did to the dye drop rate is set it back, after they accidentally increased it. They arent looking to steal all your monies.

I STRONGLY disagree. Abyss could be bought around 5-6 gold in September. Now it fluctuates between 14-16 gold. That’s overkill. So what if the dyes are needed to create the Bifrost? Did we really need to make that grind ever more of a treadmill? Dyes are otherwise COSMETIC items. They don’t need such a low drop rate.

I have three various low level toons I’m currently grinding, and I’m hardly seeing this “better rate” people speak of anywhere. It’s very inconsistent; for the past two weeks it’s been that I’ll have one day out of the week where I’ll have four abrupt drops in an hour or two, and then never see another dye for the rest of the week.

It needs to be fixed. There’s NO WAY it’s working as intended.

Sleepy.2647:

shambo.3842:

my opinion of magic find. I don’t care if you run magic find or if you don’t, its up to you.

play the game how you want to I really hate these threads about how your supposed to play the game or what to wear or whatever.

its a game people try having fun. quit stressing out about what other people do

Then players should have the option to check people’s gear, because you know…since you can’t tell anyone how they are supposed to play the game you can’t force anyone to invite MFers if they don’t want to.

Easy fix, inspect feature.

And continue fostering an elitist dungeon crawl mentality based entirely on ignorance? No thanks.

1. When did you begin playing? (post bw’s)
September 5th, the day I returned from Bahrain.

2. how many hours total do you have? (/age)
275 hours, 13 minutes.

3. What’s your most gold banked so far?
7g, 38s, 52c.

4. Do you have a max level character (s)? (number if more than one)
Yes. One.

5. List 1-3 areas / zones / events / tp; where you spend most of your time for income.
Straits of Devastation

6. Do you mainly use MF or not?
Off and on. I have two sets I use. I am skeptical that MF is effective at all.

7. Have you ever got an exotic weapon from a mob? If so, how many and total?
A few. Both of my current level 80 weapons are exotics that dropped in the Straits of Devastation.

8. Have you ever got an exotic weapon from a chest? If so, how many and total?
One from a chest in Sparkfly Fen.

9. What’s the most number of rare weapons you have looted in one day or 8hrs time?
Six.

10. How many rare or exotic weapons do you “expect” to loot in one hour of time?
One rare, zero exotics, unless running a dungeon or high level world event.

11. How many lodestones have you looted total so far? (all types)
Zero.

12. Do you craft? If so, do you have a 400 crafter? if so, how many?
One. Weaponsmith.

13. Do you sell your looted crafting mats? (specify optional)
Sometimes. I provide them to my guild.

14. Do you feel your return, (in terms of items, completion, income, etc) for your
time, has been worth it?
Not since FotM has been implemented. Most of my former activities are now hamstrung by an absence of players in favor of the FotM dungeons.

15. In ONE word, what needs improved most; from your perspective?
Fractals.

Gwalchgwn.1659:

1) I run in guild but I still use MF .. No one complains because I get the job done

That’s all that needs said. There’s nothing that irritates me more than Gearmongers who demand a full exotic set to participate in dungeon running. Funny how that first Fractal group I ran with still doesn’t know I was wearing two pieces of level 74 mastercraft armor, lol.

That’s pretty crazy, haha.

LeoXearo.3641:

Gw1 was not an MMO, Gw2 is an MMO… They are not the same type of game.

Sources and Game Critics disagree with you.

…but I guess you know more than they, because there’s nothing at all “massively multiplayer” about grouping with players to PvP or trailblaze through hundreds of hours of online gaming content, is there?

Yes, GW1 was an MMORPG, just as much as SWTOR is an MMORPG despite similar linearity and stark focus on story. GW2 is as much an MMORPG as WoW is for its massive-scale content and open world exploration.

You don’t define what the industry calls an “MMORPG;” the standards by which they were founded, do.

It’s time we stop comparing GW1 to GW2 as an argument for what defines an MMORPG, and take lessons learned from the first game on how the larger-scaled successor can retain some of its identity. Horizontal progression is possible in a game like this, so long as they’re not treadmilling us through three new tiers of armor every year with each major content release.

Want to beat WoW? You can start by not emulating it.

tkalamba.2541:

Fortuna.7259:

Your argument is unconvincing. You haven’t tied persistence to a continual need for what you call progression. Your key point, that levels control the flow, is blatantly false in the case of Guild Wars 2. It doesn’t control flow at all. I can, for instance, level from 2 to 80 inside WvW and then walk to Orr. Or I can do AC runs from 30 to 80 and walk to Orr in my full exotic set. All it does is mandate time doing something else before I go there, which is only important because it is a high level area… which is in a sense circular logic and one which can be done away with by proper design.

I kinda struggle to put my thoughts into words, especially while at work.

Without this sort of pushing a character along a particular path, how would a player experience growth? How can you push the right buttons and make players feel more powerful over time? Even just unlocking skills is a form of vertical progression, you get more as you get further along.

So how would a horizontal progression model work in a MMORPG, which very purpose is to progress a character from pretty much nothing to a hero?

I use Planetside 2 as the best example of an actual Horizontal Progression game, and even then, it still has plenty of vertical progression.

You play the game, with any class, any vehicle right from install. You can be competitive, and don’t need to level. Not like in an RPG atleast. Any experience you get awards certifications, which allow for weapon purchases, which are just serving a different purpose, but aren’t any better than what you start with. The difference with this game is it’s a Sandbox combat game.

GW2… is not. Hasn’t been from level 1. We have more of a themepark game, where story and character progression is more deeply intertwined with the enviroment and world. As you level, you push further along into Tyria. It does however have some elements of Horizontal progression, but this game at its core, wasn’t built around it. Really, this was evident from the Beta, Even if you leveled in WvW, you were still forced along the same path as everyone else, by doing the personal story.

Planetside 2 on the other hand isn’t an RPG, it’s an action oriented FPS game. A Sandbox with no end goal, no real story progression, and no real character progression. Your character name, and class doesn’t matter in this game, he is just one of many grunts. The entire content was designed around the chaotic nature of a sandbox.

GW1 now, this game is neither a themepark or a Sandbox game. It’s more of a closed box. You only have one path really to progress your character and Story. There is technically a start and a beginning. There’s a fixed journey inbetween, and not alot of room to explore. It’s not a persistent world in the slightest, and is more akin to a single player RPG with coop.

The three different games are all vastly different from one an another, and feature entirely different progression models. GW2 would need to borrow many elements from Planetside 2 to effectively be Horizontal progression and it’s too open for GW1’s closed progression.

Well put. I couldn’t say it any better.

Mkalafut.1273:

I’m against increasing the level cap. In GW1 you got to max level quickly and got to play all the content – and it was a challenge. Getting level 20 was achieved ~half way through the story, and by the time you were at the end of the story in normal mode you were fighting level 28 bosses with level 24 foes (max level of your group was always 20).

It’d just be another grind that nobody wants to do once expansions are released, and mind you, even in the GW1 expansions the max level stayed the same. With the departure of stand alone games, and more traditional expansions (Eye of the North style) I’m wondering how they’ll handle it considering even in Eye of the North max level remained the same but the game just got harder.

I’d love it if they left max level at 80 and just kept increasing difficulty like they did in GW1, but I won’t be whining if they go another route. Just my 2 cents.

Same. GW1 knew plenty of success by leaving the level cap at 20 and continually dumping loads of content into the game with every expansion. It would be wise if GW2 followed this trend. That should be the only “vertical” progression that should ever exist.

Valandil Dragonhart.2371:

invizo.5408:

I thought every aspect of this “Lost Shores” fiasco was ABYSMAL.

On lowest ugly ugly UGLY settings I ran at 25fps
On highest settings I ran at 19fps.

1920×1080
Intel i5 2500k 3.5ghz x 4
Nvidia 560Ti OC x 2 in SLI
120gb SATA3 SSD
8gb DDR3 RAM
Win7 64bit
and i’ve been a computer systems builder for 15 years.

You wasted all of your money and resources on creating one-time only events that were PAINFUL to complete, LONG as hell, and i felt REQUIRED to be there because of all the loot.

I don’t see how anyone can enjoy ANY video game at under 30fps.

I think you’ve missed the fact that your PC- and game-specs have little to nothing to do with server-side lag. When, as a server, you’re trying to govern the actions and content of hundreds of people, it’s just not viable to go above a certain limit before the game looks and feels too chunky. If it’s gonna drop, it’ll drop people because it can’t handle the load.

I am running a PC with similar specs to yours and mine was just as bad, although the FPS rate was way worse (max 12FPS in only the first phase of the event). Why? Simple. My connection from half way around the world in competition with everyone else who is 95% guaranteed to be closer to the server than me. If you can’t drop the latency you can’t pick up the FPS.

I do agree that the event was abysmal, totally. But do be thankful that you got to be there for the final event… others were less fortunate, myself included.

FPS Lag is Client side lag. Time-delayed latency is server lag. FPS doesn’t lag. It either stutters down or runs smoothly; the former can be a consequence of insufficient hardware power, or a gross lack of optimization in the client’s design. Since the game’s launch, my average FPS has increased (with max settings on an ASUS G74 laptop) from an average of 17fps at launch, to an average 42fps, now. This is due to routine client side optimization that most developers often perform during a game’s early launch development.

Only during large group events does it stutter down. That’s to be expected when the game is rendering so many players and particle effects at one time. To believe a single GPU, or even two powerful ones can handle everything that this game potentially throws at you is silly.

I’m not trying to be a kitten here; I’m simply trying to squash the misnomer that server side lag has anything to do with FPS discrepancies. It doesn’t. It never has; but because of the massive rendering scale of this game, it’s practically impossible and highly unrealistic to ever expect you will run at silky framerates without anything other than a bleeding edge system, no matter how good you are at building them.

My latest-built desktop is a Sabertooth X77 with quad-SLI GTX690s running overclocked with an I7 3.5ghz and 16GB of RAM, and large groups STILL drop FPS down to the 30s from an average 120fps in the world, when games like Battlefield 3 run maxed all the time.

So yes, some optimization is still needed, but I’ve never played a large-pop MMOG where you’ll always have picture-perfect framerates.

Fortuna.7259:

plasmacutter.2709:

At this point I’m more concerned about how fractal levels punish people who cooperate and help others in lower levels with less reward.

It’s fragmenting the community.

A major impact of Ascended gear. Stuff like this is why you can’t just ignore that it is there… Other people will not ignore it, and then what are you left with? A game where a level 38 FotM won’t play with a level 34 FotM?

I think the greatest impact this has had can be seen in two venues:

1. In Lion’s Arch, you often revile the incessant narcissism made by elitists who deny a fresh level 80 their share of the pie when they want to “form a group for level 1 FotM dungeons.”
2. Straits of Devastation, etc., are now devoid of players, leaving most players on many servers facing a plethora of contested waypoints and a harsh inability to grind exotic sets (Armageddon and such).

I’m not one who believes in the “if you can’t beat em, join em,” nonsense. Even if I was, I’d be faced with situation #1. On two occasions when trying to form a low-difficulty Fractal group, I was pretty much told by most to “get bent” and “ask my own guild” for assistance. This was on Tarnished Coast. I don’t know how it is elsewhere. What happened to the “prove your skill, not your gear” mentality that used to be the pedigree of the Guild Wars community?

So between #1 and #2, combined with the incessant trolling that seems to be increasing on these forums in support of the newfound “grind,” I haven’t seen a community more divided than when the NGE struck Star Wars Galaxies in 2005.

So, as my wife wittily remarked over my shoulder: “Please enjoy this lovely elevator music,” while Anet un-kittens (because I can’t swear) this SNAFU.

Getting errors on my Lion’s Arch toon and my toon still in the Southsun Cove. All my lowbies and mid-level toons can log in fine.

Wiser with Age.3714:

JarekCyphus.7068:

That’s the point I made exactly. They should have waited. It wasn’t ready. They didn’t have the clairvoyance to prepare for the repercussions of crowd envy with loot.

What’s even sadder is that people could predict all of this happening within 5 minutes of reading ArenaNet’s 1st article on the subject. On top of this, Chris on the AMA basically admitted (or claimed) that ArenaNet did pretty much everything that they had internally decided to be a bad decision. This makes the whole situation even more confusing since none of ArenaNet’s actions have made any sense.

Precisely. That’s why I’m putting this game away until the next Holiday content comes out. Once they “fix” this SNAFU, I’ll consider coming back.

Can’t log into any toon located in Lion’s Arch or Southsun Cove. All of my other characters in the lowbie areas (or Lornar’s Pass) can log in fine.

I’m getting this on any toon logged in at Southsun Cove or Lion’s Arch. All of my other characters can log in fine.

plasmacutter.2709:

Again, take the time to read the AMA’s.

Anet Team considers the way fractals were implemented, instructure, gating, and as the sole reward source for gear as a huge mistake.

In the following weeks they will be endeavoring to fix this.

That’s the point I made exactly. They should have waited. It wasn’t ready. They didn’t have the clairvoyance to prepare for the repercussions of crowd envy with loot.

bluewanders.5297:

I am in Yaks Bend and I have yet to see most of the problems that people are describing. Aside from the racial cities being deserted… I see and randomly team up with people in low level areas AND high level areas on my different toons. But I am also the type that bounces around checking out different areas. I only have 1 level 80 toon and have not even seen orr yet. I’ve been all over the map enjoying the sites, I’ve spent hours and hours in WvW… doing jumping puzzles… finding mini dungeons and secret “boss” fights. There always seems to be other people doing the same things no matter where I go….

Yeah, and that’s BECAUSE they can’t do Orr anymore.

The Ascended Gear grind wasn’t ready, if the AMA is anything to go by. From the state of the game, and the mass obsession with FotM, the OP’s plight is unsurprising to me, as both my wife and I also experience this. Clearly the argument that Ascended Gear isn’t needed to be at your best is moot, since such a majority is doing it that it is precluding the uninterested from completing the other endgame of GW2: Orr.

The Straits of Devastation show virtually all waypoints CONTESTED at all times. At one point yesterday, there were a couple of threads up with screenshots depicting just “how good FotM is for the game,” by displaying a myriad of maps across a swath of the game’s servers displaying contested waypoint after waypoint. Meanwhile, each of those servers has a clogged Lion’s Arch buzzing with the din of FotM invites, but nobody was inviting to low difficulty maps to get people started.

So The Lost Shores further nurtured the elitist environment we’d hoped to avoid in this game. Now it is worse. The rest of the game’s endgame has been abandoned in favor of a “grind” in which everyone is participating, despite that “nobody wanted it.” So either:

1. Players who are smitten by the Ascended Gear fiasco simply aren’t playing, ergo, aren’t helping their fellow players who lament over abandoned zones.
2. The FotM farmers are the ones who formerly ran the train circuit around Orr.

In either case, that Ascended Gear can currently be obtained ONLY one way has left this game in a sorry state. In my honest opinion, they should have waited until they could have provided multiple venues in which to achieve Fractal shinies. Instead, the Glory Hounds of this game have abandoned the players to rot in empty zones, oppressed under brazen elitism.