Guild Wars 2

I am amazed at what some people here think they are owed. I am quite OK with the handling of the crisis, but I have a suggestion.

Due to Win10-Update-Issues I no longer run Win7 but run GuildWars2 on Xubuntu with PlayOnLinux (the Wine frontend). My hardware always had issues with GW2, freezing without provocation at least once a week during gameplay, but since I have a fast-booting system, I never bothered to start the expensive hardware-exchange-cycle needed to address the problem.

Just before the patch, I updated to a new wine version and tried some new command line arguments. When the soulbound-bug became obvious (why should my ranger have soulbound the staff that my elementalist has been carrying forever?) I first blamed it on the new wine. When shortly after the game disconnected me (for a change it did not freeze to death) and I got the “login server” error message, I seriously started taking apart my wine installation.

It was just hours later, after I had given up on finding the problem on my side, that I accidentally found the error notice on the game forums. I usually do not read here.

So I would suggest that a short and visible notice of a server-side error be included on the login screen. Just to make oblivious people like me see the problem is not their computer.

For me it is a matter of courtesy only to use basic damage (the famous 1 skill) when I am in a big PvE zerg. Other players should have the time and opportunity to deal enough damage for the system to register them as playing, too.

I do not want to play a game in which my participation in an event does mean other players miss out on their reward. Even in PvP the losing side gets points, in PvE the “Nonparticipants” get nothing.

Currently it is a problem that the unified boss schedule makes Zergs to the upper limit of the map capacity at a single event. Perhaps lowering the map capacity 5 minutes prior to the World events, thereby getting less jump-in, jump-out players per event, is possible.
At the moment, I have difficulty seeing my own damage codes per boss. Really, it would be very nice to do the Frozen Maw with 7 players again – but that will have to wait till the current incarnation of the all-15-minutes-a-boss – train gets boring for most particpants.

Thank you for the chat option that tunes out languages “foreign” to the client. It really seems to help.
But I would like to differentiate in chat the languages I can understand – I love the Megaserver system and the really populated maps.

So is there a possibility to add a “languages” channel in which I can toggle that I would like to see map chatter that originates on English [EN] or German [DE] and French [FR] servers, but not Spanish [SP] or Polish [PL] because I neither read nor write or understand the language?

I love the international community. I would like to see more of it.

This most obviously was a case of same problems, same complaints at the same time. But I think the other thread’s OP had the better idea, posting in German to make his point.
I maintain that I offered a possible solution to the problem, too.

I really like the higher populations at “impossible” times on the Megaserver.

But the babylonic language mess in main chat on the European servers is not too good. I read and speak two languages and somewhat understand three more if a text line is written in babyspeak. But I am not a standard player in that regard. Others in my household (like my son) only speak and write one language and they can’t keep up with the mixed chatter.

Would it be possible to split the map chat in language specific channels that can be toggled like all other chat channels? The game does not change at the language barrier, just the talk. I have been playing for ages in international groups of whose languages I only understood half. Strg-T is the same all over.

During the last two Marionette events on Aurora Glade (Overflow) I have been spending my time on repairing barricades, arrow carts and so on. Since I realized some time ago, that the repair hammers only spawn a limited amount of times, I kept the hammer in hand always. Nobody else bothered keeping the defensive stuff up, anyways, and I had plenty to do.
Needlessly, since I was hammering away, I could not fight. The right hand skills all were for support – healing and buffing others, and I used them occasionally.
Then we had a turn at the Marionette, I participated and we got both Regulator and Mechanism.

But … at the end of both events, the system did not credit me with participation (Group Events:0 in the Dailies), and I also did not get the “been there, dun that” chest. In short, the system ruled that I was a non-participant or worse, leeching.

Could the next events be shaped in a way that allows a support role player (holding a repair hammer and using it, for instance)

a) to use skills that damage the enemy?
b) get credit for event-related services rendered (hammering away)?
c) get credit for keeping others alive or reviving them?

I do not mind the loot I did not get. But I do mind spending half an hour on supporting my team by means supplied by the event and not even being noticed.

I was actually hoping I could use all that fine stuff for myself, without needing to “promote” it … If my guildmates don’t need the stuff anymore, I will send you an email.

I love Coddler’s Cove to pieces, even though I never managed to get up to the chest. And believe me, I tried for hours over the last few months.

Additional to “poor depth perception” and “disabilities” hindering people participating successfully in jumping puzzles, I would like to add the system setup as a factor. Camera positioning is essential in the challenges. People that can use a normal two- to six-button mouse have better control over the character movement than others with alternate hardware.

I have to use a trackball, and camera positioning in jumping challenges is a painstaking process for me. Once I positioned the camera, I have to use the keyboard to execute the jumps. This is very unwieldy, and tons of kind-of-instinctive jumpers pass me by before I manage to execute even one jump. Sometimes, this makes me feel very stooopid.

Timed jumping challenges or time-constricted stuff like the mad king’s clock tower are not made for me. But I would dearly like to have the chance to do these monsters without the normal constraints – no time limit, and no platforms that vanish under my feet. That also includes other challenges that require fast and sure jumps in quick succession.

Giving me a chest for these “practice opportunities” is not necessary, but a “looser’s acievement” would be nice. Rat King, anyone?

But complaints aside, I have tried every puzzle at least once.

As I stated above, I know of promotion recipies. I also am not too cheap to get the materials I want. But with the exception of cooking, which draws on all levels of available materials for all levels of resultant foods, it is “Tier 1 material gets Tier 1 useful stuff”. Since Tier X material is linked to Level A-B maps, visiting those maps gets you mostly Tier X material.

But in the current system, I can only use Tier Z materials for the stuff I need. There is a opportunity wasted. If you only get Tier Z materials from Tier Z maps, why should you visit maps that do not yield what you need? Therefore my suggestion for crafting recipies besides cooking that draw on all available tiers of material. This would free players from Orr or Frostgorge Sound for aqiring all their needed materials.

And no, I am not cheap and I know how to use my stuff. I am happily running around with Temple Armor that was transmuted to the skin of the craftable Shadow armor because I like it.

But still the fact remains that high-level crafting only requires highest-level materials. This very strong stratification system does not seem in step with the “play as you want” principle.

Currently, a certain level of crafted goods draws exclusively on one tier of material. In my case, since I reached the skill level of 400, I am always out of tier 5 & 6 material for level 80 stuff, while tier 1-4 materials keep piling up senselessly.

I love the lower-level maps and will not leave them just for farming mithril, oricalcum, ancient bones, most powerful blood or the other high-level stuff. But I also cannot pass by a resource node without harvesting it, or an enemy without testing my skill against it.

So I would like to suggest that some new armor recipes with skill level 400 and resultant level 80 are added to the game: A copper-ornamented mithril axe, for instance, that draws on a mixture of tiers for crafting. Or a coat “Allerleihrauh” like in the German Brother Grimm’s tale, where the heroine wears a coat made of all kinds of leather and fur. From coarse leather squares up to the best refined stuff available.

This gives people a reason to visit lower-level areas and use the stuff they earn there. Just throwing it into the mystic forge for promotion devalues the stuff and seriously goes against my grain. And I don’t want to have to sell the stuff in stacks of 250 just to get rid of it, either.

After reaching level 80 on my Elementalist and level 400 on my tailoring discipline, I have no valid reason to roam the lower level maps and gather what is available there, since most material I need for crafting is only available on the few level 80 maps. Also, most gold is to be had there, and not in low-level events in Wayfarer Foothills (which I love. But after 500 copper mined for nothing, I got to wonder …).

So I would like to suggest that ArenaNet introduces new craftable armor and weapons that offer high-level stats while using low-level materials. Stuff like copper-embellished mithril armor, iron-studded darksteel hatchets with oricalcum edge or a coat of many materials named Allerleihrau (it is the title of a Grimm tale where the heroine gets a coat made of all kinds of leather).

The making of such armor and weapons would draw on all tiers of crafting material, making it necessary to visit all areas of the world while not being as single-purposed as leveling up stacks of 250 of something via the mystic forge, which actually lowers the apparent value of the lower status materials.