Guild Wars 2

JonPeters.5630:

Cross.6437:

JonPeters.5630:

Lazuli.2098:

ozmaniandevil.6805:

JonPeters.5630:

Thanks. I’ll pass this on.

So, this is how it works? Cherry pick ONE PERSON’s “list of things I don’t like”, while ignoring 40 pages of really good feedback and ideas? OK. I’m done with this thread.

From this response from JonPeters and his initial post it is obvious that Anet is not going to fix their new leveling process or trait system except the individual tasks themselves.

I’m discouraged since I used to like leveling new alts but can live with just playing my level 80s instead.

To be clear we are looking at the system as a whole but recognize that changing that will take longer than is satisfying and are looking for ways to improve the current system until a time at which we can make a better overall system from the ground up. Specific suggestions on what traits are poorly placed are helpful for #1, specific suggestions on #2 are also welcome but are going to be read but not responded too right now.

So, if I’m reading this right, are you saying, you’re looking for quick changes to make the system more bearable while not confirming or denying the possibility of a holistic revamp at some point in the indeterminate future?

Because knowing that would really settle some of my anxiety about the existence of this request for feedback.

Yup. and I would replace the word possibility with the word probability…

If you are going to revamp the whole system in a matter of months, why not just go the route of least resistance and most happy players by unlocking all of the traits?

The problem I see with the traits system is:

1. I can’t try out different builds which consist of equipment, trait lines, and utility (6-0) skills. Since the traits have been locked up, I can’t play with them and therefore it reduces the effectiveness of any other build. This is annoying no matter what I am doing in game.

2. Except for the first character (which was grandfathered in anyway), I don’t want to do map completion because it’s too slow paced for me compared to EotM or dungeon running (fun, and way better rewards and exp).

3. I think the trait lines unlocking could be done more effectively.

To expand on point 3, the trait unlocks should be something that can be done in 5-30 minutes per trait. This is because there are 12 traits for each of the 6 different trait lines, totaling 72 traits to unlock. Even 72*0.5 = 36 hours of trait unlocking. But in the current system it would take 150-250 hours to unlock traits because completing a map is something that takes 3 hours at the quickest. I didn’t even spend 100 hours getting my character to 80, I spend about 30 hours doing that. So unlocking traits is therefore 700% more intense than getting a character to max level. I can also make 55 gold in about 30 hours, so the cost of the traits from the unlocker is WAY less than the cost to do what it says to unlock them. Now, this is why everybody dislikes the trait system.

What should be implemented instead?
There are two options for the trait system, which could be effective.

1. Unlock all the traits and make the rewards system for completing those objectives better. Upon completing a map (a common task to unlock a trait), the reward doesn’t seem like I am getting rewards for 4 hours of play. There could be different incentives for completing full maps: titles, skins, equipment that matches the level of the character upon completion, currencies, crafting materials.

2. Rework the traits unlock system to give players quicker things to do in order to unlock a trait. This means something in the 5-30 minutes range. It could be going to talk to some person in X meaningful location. It could mean go to the skill trainer, portal into Y instance and brawl this veteran who embodies the trait for S, W, and Z reasons. Bonus points for enforcing a particular fighting style. There are other ways too.

The fact is that the trait system is really taxing on old and new players. I have two friends who just picked up the game and both did not like the trait system because by level 40, they can’t do anything with the traits system. And getting to level 40 in PvE is 20 hours of game time. Playing the game for 20 hours is enough time to beat a AAA console game three times, so it is for sure enough time to understand the game.

There are also plenty of RPG games with very complicated skill trees and trait trees which are critically acclaimed and popular. This reasons that the common player of RPG games knows what skill trees (and therefore trait lines) ARE and knows how to use them. Furthermore, this exemplifies that having locked traits for the sake of not overwhelming a new player is very ineffective. It is highly probable that any new player will know what a trait line is, and if they don’t know or don’t understand it they will likely just look up a build and run it without questioning.

These people just got detached from a whole section of the game. My college professors say that hands on experience is the best way to learn something, which means an open and unlocked trait system is the best way to learn the trait system. Give the players (old and new) things to play around with and get suited to their own style! If they can’t play with the traits hands-on, and then follow an established build, then they likely won’t bother unlocking any other traits other than what is required by the build. And that, is bad because not only will players not understand the trait system, they won’t get to learn it unless they put 200 hours onto a single character. That doesn’t sound casual friendly like the rest of the game.

Don’t spend time making a 200 hour trait system, just put more CONTENT into the game and people will play for 200 hours!

Pretty cool. I wonder why they only chose to have 4 colors instead of doing it this way. Maybe it’s a big resource sink… I don’t know.

I like this idea, but it would also be nice to have the development team focused on solving one issue at a time from the thread. The thread could be organized into Quick and Impacting, Quick Fixes, and Long and Impacting. It would also be nice to know whether the dev team thinks the issue is able to be completed in two weeks, or if it would need multiple months to formulate and execute a solution for the issue. At least in this way, players can see the general worktime for the various items in the thread. Also, the ANet team could work on each list for a while separately. A bigger team to tackle a smaller number of changes should make the time it takes to implement them shorter, right?

Lich King.1524:

WWW-seazons
- Make “alley of fame” and create for winner server unique permanent statue with a name or top-3 server. For each season a new statue. And finisher with this statue.
- Make reward for the object defence. For example if you baby-sittling with a object, upgrade it, protect it, then killing enemy near the object gives you +100% of magic find.
- Between WWW-seazons make “Crazy Friday” on WWW-maps, each Friday like +50% pemanent speed-boost for golems. Or 5 times cheaper cost of sieges. Or 3 times more strong castles. To make existing mehanics more fresh and also you can test any even crazy ideas

sPvP
- So BORING to wait 5 minutes between solo-arenas. Stupid waiting kills immersion.
- GW1 had great feature. It not disband random team after each win. After 10 wins you even can try to fight against team-arena. It was so immersive and fun to win once, then 2nd time, you basically found new teammates and win with them and feel that new team is good. And even ask to join to your guild after fight.
- Also like in GW1 Arena will be much more immersive and interesting if few wins in a row will give a gladiator-point. And rewars is a gladiator title. Then this title will be so honored and respectful.

GvG
- Please make leaderboard for guilds. People like competition. The game will live for years then.

I really like the WvW-seasons ideas above. Even if it turned out to be way unbalanced (though global buffing generally seems fair), it would be fun to play for a day anyway just to mix things up.

I really like your ideas for this healthy competition. The game has always been against having competition, but it can be well done if the competition isn’t in a gear grind but instead fosters competition between guilds, PvP, WvW, EotM, and dungeon running, PvE. There are many ways to track a players ability throughout these modes and all can be leaderboarded with rewards ranging from buffs, item chests, mats, existing currencies (we have a bunch already). I think GW2 has a great amount of casual content, but the hard content is missing a key element. What’s missing is more complex encounters, bosses need more complex movement, abilities and variance. Even bosses in PvE could be given movement patterns and skill patterns to make them more “real.” Easy AI leads me to detach from what I’m doing that’s when I get bored.

Other things I would like to see for PvE are different quest lines that occur in world, adding to the lore of the game in a way that’s different from the main storyline. These quests could show a different side of Tyria, the regular folk in need of help that make the player think or undertake a more complex path rather than simple things to do such as herding cows, killing bandits, gathering apples, etc. This is different from events in that they provide a mental challenge (treasure map locating, creating potions to cure an epidemic plaguing the local crops/wildlife/farm animals, puzzles to reset electrical/magical components, riddles from folk that are more challenging, etc.). Also I think caravan events could move faster and NPCs should run faster when following them is necessary.

Fractals could also use some of these ideas, also having a time limit perhaps to grab items and create something based on a prompt given by an NPC (spirit, oracle, dragon, whoever).

I would love a duel option in the PvE to duel another player just for fun, and a proper trade window instead of using mail.

GW2 would also benefit majorly from having different types of items available for reward. So far, there is only equipment, titles, and minis to attain as ultimate rewards for playing. What other rewards can be added to the game to work towards?

On the communication side of things, I think it is a good idea to announce plans or take polls for long term plans from the community and then have final decisions made by ANet. The community gets stirred when there isn’t enough knowledge of what is being worked on, plus it detracts from the interest of playing the game for the future releases. The community doesn’t always know what’s best for GW2, and this is further compounded by the fact that GW2 offers all directions to play the game and some players want only WvW, others only PvE, etc. which can lead to the development team being spread too thin to make adequate progress. Taking in the community’s suggestions and then responding with a post telling the upcoming plans, while also giving reason for not doing other plans would placate the playerbase.

Regardless, I love the game thus far, and it is still young if GW1’s lifespan is anything to go by. Good work so far team and I am optimistic that this renewed communication can bring good and fun changes to the game, while also promoting constructive well-thought criticism and suggestions from the playerbase.

Thanks for all the hard work!

Perhaps there should be an option for playing a dungeon without “res-rushing” with considerably more rewards and a dungeon with “res-rushing.” Or perhaps there should be a beginner level dungeon with an NPC guide (or something of the like) to help people who aren’t familiar with dungeons. In this way, a newbie could play through the beginner dungeon, learn the types of strategies needed for it and some general guidelines for cooperative play, and not have to worry about jumping right into something very difficult and getting kicked by a team.

Though, I suppose, with the right guild or group of friends and a bit of self-help-googling anybody can learn how to do a dungeon. However, I think that the type of play where a dungeon is so hard that a new player can’t get into one without a solid group of friends ready to waste a few hours of play time on lots of unnecessary deaths is not conducive of a fun experience. Already, we have seen people leave our guild because they lacked the ability to dodge and when we tried to teach them how to play so that they wouldn’t die, they got frustrated, left, and quit the guild.

But this is all just speculation, as the redesign of bosses and elites could reduce the learning curve and provide for a good experience for people at different levels of skill. Also, as long as people are willing to play with their friends and give up the idea that their time is wasted if they spend too long on one dungeon when they could’ve ran it twice then these problems become non-issues.

This new mechanic could also invoke more teamwork and careful planning, but it is a gamble as how many people are going to want to describe the strategy on every run to newcomers? And in a boss fight, one cannot just stop and type out what each person should do so that they don’t die when they misstep, nor are people going to be able to stop and revive people who are downed when sitting for two hits could get both of you killed. Perhaps it would be better if bosses targeted those who weren’t reviving a fallen player. But then, again, it could make boss fights too easy.

I’m not sure how this will play out; only time will tell! Hopefully you guys keep an eye out for what happens and react accordingly, like you have been doing since launch!

I would like to see more filters in the Trading Post. For example, I would like to filter out medium and light armors from my search when buying armor for a Warrior. Filters for stat bonuses would also be nice, such as excluding items with condition damage, power, etc.

I would also like to see where players are in WvW. It wouldn’t have to be every player but if it could just mark where there are currently teammates fighting, then it would be a lot easier to get right into playing.

Thanks for reading.