Guild Wars 2

Guess I’ll just reiterate what I said in my thread;

There’s dozens of kitten plotholes all over the place, characters constantly referring to events that have been REMOVED (Such as trahearne telling me he was sorry about the death of a character that NO LONGER HAPPENS), and NPCs I’ve never met acting like we know each other, until several missions later it’s like we’re meeting for the first time. (The cleansing of Orr comes to mind, who is this weird butterfly lady? Oh wait, I was meant to do her mission BEFORE the cleansing? So why is the cleansing— I don’t even—)
Not to mention the removal of an entire plot segment relating to your character’s greatest fear, which is still heavily referenced throughout the story but is now never a significant point beyond foreshadowing that ultimately now leads nowhere.
Please fix these gaping plot holes, 1-70 is perfectly serviceable but from that point on the Personal Story just becomes a mess. Some of it was done for convenience (Such as moving most starting points onto the airship), some done for ease of access (The level requirements) but there was zero reason to jumble around the missions into a completely random order until many, many things make no sense. And there was no reason to remove the mission where your character accidentally bombards a pack of his or her own soldiers whilst they were under an illusion, that was a powerful moment for the story and it had a great sense of purpose. Now? Your character is basically… never wrong. Which feels very two dimensional.

Hell they could make it split up into 5 levels rather than 10 if they feel they drag out. It honestly seems to me during the restructure of the last ten levels of story, the testers just skipped all the text and just said whether or not they were able to finish it. A complete shame, as up until the Battle for Claw Island the story is neatly tied together, but after that it just became less interesting, and now it’s even worse because characters keep referring to events that either didn’t happen, have yet to happen or are just plain inconsistent.
Heck the missing missions are STILL ON THE WIKI, listed as being after the battle for Fort Trinity.

Hell they could make it split up into 5 levels rather than 10 if they feel they drag out. It honestly seems to me during the restructure of the last ten levels of story, the testers just skipped all the text and just said whether or not they were able to finish it. A complete shame, as up until the Battle for Claw Island the story is neatly tied together, but after that it just became less interesting, and now it’s even worse because characters keep referring to events that either didn’t happen, have yet to happen or are just plain inconsistent.

Heck the missing missions are STILL ON THE WIKI, listed as being after the battle for Fort Trinity.

There’s dozens of kitten plotholes all over the place, characters constantly referring to events that have been REMOVED (Such as trahearne telling me he was sorry about the death of a character that NO LONGER HAPPENS), and NPCs I’ve never met acting like we know each other, until several missions later it’s like we’re meeting for the first time. (The cleansing of Orr comes to mind, who is this weird butterfly lady? Oh wait, I was meant to do her mission BEFORE the cleansing? So why is the cleansing— I don’t even—)

Not to mention the removal of an entire plot segment relating to your character’s greatest fear, which is still heavily referenced throughout the story but is now never a significant point beyond foreshadowing that ultimately now leads nowhere.

Please fix these gaping plot holes, 1-70 is perfectly serviceable but from that point on the Personal Story just becomes a mess. Some of it was done for convenience (Such as moving most starting points onto the airship), some done for ease of access (The level requirements) but there was zero reason to jumble around the missions into a completely random order until many, many things make no sense. And there was no reason to remove the mission where your character accidentally bombards a pack of his or her own soldiers whilst they were under an illusion, that was a powerful moment for the story and it had a great sense of purpose. Now? Your character is basically… never wrong. Which feels very two dimensional.

I am greatly disappointed with the shield, it’s our class icon and yet it’s practically useless in PvE and highly situational at best in PvP. Even engineers have better shield skills, we ought to at least have one skill with it that also acts as a block.

I’m not gonna bother replying to every little snippet posted so far, but based on what I have read my thoughts are as follows;

I have never said RPers are a majority, or acted like it. In fact I have explicitly stated that we are a niche community. However, a healthy RP community can do wonders to help flesh out an MMORPG (See the RP in MMORPG?), and as I have said, I am still subscribed to another MMO -because- of RP. I would not be giving that developer money if they had made it so horrendously difficult to RP in a fluid, slick manner. That is what I am after here, yes some of my suggestions could just be nice to have, but things like the ability to choose a megaserver layer manually (Which many MMOs of old have done, and why GW2 and WoW etc refuse to allow the same is mind boggling) and town outfits have no reason to not be present, even people who don’t RP can benefit especially from a less convoluted megaserver. (Funnily enough I posted this matter to the GW2 reddit, when I was told “Oh just r-click and join map” except that doesn’t always work…)

As for the personality system, I agree it could have been fleshed out, but really in the end it did… nothing, literally nothing. That is an example of a ‘nice to have’ system, and whilst I do miss it, I don’t really mind whether it’s here or not.

Population density; absolutely agreed that the obsession with keeping -every- zone/map as densely packed as possible needs to stop. Again, for regular play that is fine, and a high pop helps with world events, but for people who just want breathing room or RP we -want- to be able to choose to have some space. Again, the ability to pick map layers would completely amend the issue. People playing normally can join a densely populated map, people who want to RP or just want to explore a quieter world can get space of their own. It’s obvious that the ability to let the player pick a map is there (See the volunteer system/button when the map gets very empty), so why not just open up the full list? Like the PvP server browser?

That being said, everything else could be seen as a ‘nice to have’ feature. And to be honest, if megaservers were amended as suggested, I would gladly shut up about everything else. It’s by far the biggest obstacle for ease of RP, and even ease of regular gameplay.

Also, to the guy suggesting we RPers go play on the Sims or Second Life, or to the ‘dark corners of the internet’. u wot m8?

Rangelost.4857:

Wolfheart.1879:

at time of Megaserver implementation, grouping was so random that those factors that apparantly were a part of the algorithm, meant kitten all to the reality, with guild and party members all in separate instances of the map a distinct possibility.

It hasn’t changed. To this day, I am thrown in map copies at absolute random. It doesn’t matter which home server I’m from, which guild I’m representing, how many friends are online or how many party members are present on a map copy. Two times out of three, I’m getting shoved into another map copy, away from everyone else.

Sometimes, I’m in a party with 4 other players, and after walking through a portal, we get separated in 3 different map copies. Then, we all click to join another party member’s map copy, which in reality only causes us to swap all over the place, and still end up on a bunch of different maps. It’s absolutely ridiculous, confusing, and let’s be honest, unacceptable.

And megaservers aren’t an issue exclusively to roleplayers. They are a massive blow to World vs World. It is now absolutely impossible to call your world to arms. You have no idea whatsoever where people in map chat are from.

This goes for large scale events, as well. I’ve witnessed a lot of frustrated guilds trying to do guild missions and having all the trouble in the world getting their members in the same map copy. When you’ve got a timer counting down, the last thing you want to do is try and figure out this kind of garbage.

Ultimately, megaservers are a devastating blow to any sense of community in general, and encourages players to be on their worst behavior. I’ll reiterate: it is absolutely necessary that players have the option to opt out of megaservers.

It’s been over 9 months now, and still no signs of improvement on the horizon.

This is by far my biggest problem with megaservers, even in regular gameplay they might help keep zones populated but they butcher any attempt at coherent gameplay, even between the same guild and party. It’s clear that ANet, Blizzard and other companies that make this form of ‘megaserver’ are deadly afraid of simply merging lower population servers, and instead decide to overcomplicate the possible solution to the problem. or at the very least, they just glance at the zone numbers, go “Yup, populated” and call it a day.

Excellent post Wolfheart, I’m very happy to see there is some real dedication to the matter. I remember in beta when we campaigned for speech bubbles and the ability to walk.

Rangelost.4857:

Ranor.5261:

I don’t see why it wouldn’t be from a programming perspective, I’d imagine the events just check to see which layer they’re present on, and if(layertype)==RP then eventtrigger=0. Yeah that’s probably VERY much dumbed down, but the gist should be there.

Preventing events from being called on a specific map copy, or even reducing the number of times they happen per hour, would make it very unattractive to non-roleplayers. Because of this, the RP map copy would find itself nearly empty at all times. And you know what happens to empty map copies…

Everything is possible from a programming perspective. That’s not what makes it impossible. What makes it impossible is having to convince the staff — the department that’s been making some insanely awful decisions lately — that making the servers run extra map copies for a minority of players is somehow beneficial.

If you ask me, megaservers are an absolute mess and have been significantly impairing my overall experience since April, but maybe that’s just me and everyone I know. What we need is an option to opt out of megaservers altogether, and play with players from our own home server only, like it used to be.

Hence why I said that the repeated events are lovely for regular gameplay, a layer people could only enter if they opted for it (Being made aware that it has no dynamic events ofc) would suit RPers just fine. Though I do agree it will be hard convincing anyone to make an extra duplication of every map with events toggled off for maybe 5% of the playerbase, if that.

That said, DE’s are not the most significant issue in regards to ease of RP, the main issue right now is, as you say, being able to RP with people in the first place due to megaservers.

Luna Silvae.9208:

I totally agree with this and would love to see some of these things happen! Even just the smallest details can make the difference between a bland world and one that seems more interactive and real. The chair thing would be sweet, and I definitely miss the days of just being able to hop into one specific server and find RP everywhere. As someone who’s homeworld is not TC, that is something that I really miss A LOT and I now have a harder time finding RP; especially outside of cities- like you said. So, yeah, great post and I hope you get more attention for it! =)

Thanks! We RPers are a very dedicated bunch, RP is the sole reason I am still playing various other MMO’s. One of which I would have stopped playing back in ‘06 if it were not for it’s roleplay community. I strongly urge ANet to not dismiss us, especially as GW2, as a game, -could- be the best MMO for RP, what with the focus on cosmetic rewards rather grinding for numbers.

Rangelost.4857:

I doubt being able to opt out of dynamic events would be possible. Other than that, I agree with the suggestions.

Too bad ArenaNet is going in the exact opposite direction.

I don’t see why it wouldn’t be from a programming perspective, I’d imagine the events just check to see which layer they’re present on, and if(layertype)==RP then eventtrigger=0. Yeah that’s probably VERY much dumbed down, but the gist should be there.

As is, GW2 is by far one of the most RP unfriendly MMO’s I’ve ever played. I understand that we’re a niche part of the playerbase, but I know plenty of people who would like to play, but are turned off by the complete lack of RP orientated features. Almost every MMO, even ones lacking RP servers, have plenty of ways to help roleplayers gather and, well, roleplay in peace. With the advent of HoT, I hope at least a few of the following suggestions can be taken into considoration;

1) Megaserver options/RP specific layers and tags

Since megaservers, it’s grown increasingly hard to roleplay outside of a city. Unless we’re on the same server (Which is reasonable), and in the same guild, and in the same party, we are most likely split up at random and scattered to completely different ‘layers’. And with a party cap of 5…. well, large groups of RPers simply cannot reliably meet, worse still even if we happen to be on the same layer upon entering a zone, if we move to a different one (Travel RP) we can very easily get split up -again-.

Even for non-RPers, it can be fiddly getting people on the same layer for gameplay purposes (Exploring together, world events, etc) as soon as the player count exceeds five. There needs to be some way to select manually what layer we want to be on (LOTRO and PS2 did this), or allow us to tag ourselves for ‘RP’ which will send us to a layer specifically for roleplayers (Perhaps with fewer NPCs and no Dynamic events) so we don’t have to clog up the chat for the non-RPers within cities or regions.

2) Speaking of dynamic events…

Someway to opt out of them, there are plenty of lovely locations we’d like to use as hubs… that are raided by centaur every five minutes, or bandits, or plants. Gameplay-wise these are completely fine, but as RPers we tend to hang around a location for much longer, and having the -same- thing occur over and over during the course of several hours can be… grinding. As suggested above, an RP or ‘static’ layer would be wonderful as a way to opt out of seeing these events take place.

They can -sometimes- generate RP, which is good, but not so good when our characters have just started winding down from combat, and suddenly they get attacked again, and again, and again, for ever and ever until we try to find somewhere else to camp out in the world.

3) Allow the use of ‘lower’ armour types on higher armoured professions

My guardian ought to have -some- form of casual wear, but none of the outfits on the gem store are suitable for this (imo), and there’s a few cloth sets that might work but… I can’t wear them? For what purpose? I can get disallowing a mesmer to wear heavy armour, but the reverse is, quite frankly, odd. From a gameplay perspective it won’t really be ‘broken’ as all gear at the equal level is more or less on the same stat area.

The same applies to the gem skins, there’s some sets that I’d love to use but are restricted to an armour type, but… others aren’t? That’s pretty inconsistent. :V Like the jungle explorer set, I can use that on ANY armour, but LORD FORBID I TRY TO USE A ‘light’ ARMOUR SKIN ON HEAVY ARMOUR!

4) Sittable chairs. Like, actual sittable chairs.

I’m aware it can be problematic, animating the sitting position for so many characters of varying heights and body builds. But what about, at the very least, some kind of spawnable chair? Whether it’s from the gemstore or built into an emote (Like TESO) I don’t really mind, just… I want to sit on chairs without either sinking through them or still appearing like I’m sitting on the ground (Leaning back through the backrest etc).

5) (Minor) A talking animation

No matter how much my character talks, he or she just… stands there… unmoving. Suffice to say, it looks odd. A more minor problem but it is worth mentioning. Even just some random assortment of animations from the dialogue scenes would work fine.

I could go on and on about other niggles, but these are the big four (or five) features that I feel would massively improve the roleplayability (Is that a word?) of the game, and though the RP community is small, we are certainly a -very- dedicated lot (And probably most likely to splurge money on cosmetics).

PS; More town/casual outfits please.

gib rifle, I wanna shoot bullets made of justice.

Fingers crossed for expansion!

As seen here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2hs8tf/does_fall_damage_seem_absurdly_sensitive_to/ I am hardly alone in this issue.

I’ve randomly dropped dead walking down stairs, I’ve gone splat after jumping off a ledge as tall as my character, yet I’ve lost maybe 10% health jumping off a ledge four times as high.

The general consensus seems to be that either;

A) Fall damage has no internal cooldown, even something like a 500ms delay would stop people dropping dead when they run down stairs or slopes.

B) Fall damage is calculated using how far you’ve descended in a certain amount of time.

In that thread someone posted a link and a time stamp of a guy’s livestream, where he was clear of enemies, ran down some stairs, and literally just dropped dead after his health drained. HOW DARE WE HAVE THE NERVE TO USE A SPEED BOON DOWN A SLOPE OR STAIRS.

As hilarious as this is, it’s a serious issue that needs to be looked into.

Using a speed boon to get around quickly has become quite deadly. Going down stairs or slopes whilst under a speed boon causes me to often rapidly loose health, the same occurs if I use a charge or dashing ability.

In addition I often die outright falling off only moderately high heights. Off a building I expect to go splat, but not off a ledge only a few feet off the ground.

Indeed it would, though I hope other players won’t suddenly hear profanity yelled by some silly-billy who thought it’d be funny. :P

kirito.4138:

Try using a diff defrag tool like defraggler

What I’ve been using…

mavet.3047:

You might have to take ownership of the .exe or the entire game folder in order to do it.

How is this done?

kirito.4138:

Do you even have enough free space to defrag?

Plenty, at least 200GB.

Huh….it’s actually the same for several of my games. Get around 30% then suddenly it just aborts itself.

So I’m de-fragmenting my Hard drive. And the biggest load of fragments is Guild Wars 2, the main data file to be specific. But whenever I try to defrag it, it reaches about 30% but then defraggler says “Defrag aborted. No files were defragmented. The operation cannot be done”.

Er…help?

I cannot stress this enough, in dungeons, PvP or even boss world events:

Revive whenever possible. For every person that is alive the enemy will have someone else to attack, someone else to attack it in turn and someone else to provide support through boons and the like. On a few occasions people seem to ignore people who are downed or defeated, even if they are in a perfect position to do just that. Granted the XP bonus from reviving helps encourage it, but many still seem to think it’s fine to let people die when they actually need all the help they can get.

This is a bit ranty and it -seems- obvious to most probably, but it’s rather important none the less and I hope as time goes on people will do everything they can to keep their friends and allies on their feet instead of letting them die then run back from a waypoint.