Showing Posts For Twylla Night.1792:
This trait change is a mixed bag for me.
On the positive side:
1) The reorganization is more intuitive. I like having 1 trait point opening up a trait benefit I can choose instead of having one open up every 5 points.
2) The design is well thought out. It is easy to find the traits, to add and subtract and change them.
3) It was brilliant having the acquisition information built in. I love how handy that is.
On the negative side:
1) It was hard losing trait skills I already had learned with my level 30-48 characters. I had paid for manuals and opened up trait skills that now I will have to reaquire and at a much higher cost. For example, my 2nd highest character, a level 48 necro, used to have her death trait maxed through the master level (equivilant to 4 of the new trait points.) Now she is allowed only 1 point in Death trait and has to unlock the ability to assign more.
2) Trait quests are too difficult. I was pretty excited when I heard we would get a chance to acquire trait training through quest rewards, but the choice of quests seems a bit odd. In the above example, my level 48 necro needs to go do a lev 55 storyline quest to acquire the ability to put a 2nd point in the Death trait line. I would have expected the trait quests to be more in line with the character level at which the trait points are earned.
3) Trait guide prices are too high. Generally lower level characters can’t earn as much gold as quickly as higher level characters and there are a lot of things to spend on — such as armor and weapons as one levels up. A high price for an item needed to level up a character is a harsh penalty on new characters. Higher level characters not only earn more gold faster, but they also have less need for the gold as they don’t have to constantly upgrade their weapons and armor.
3) The new trait system enourages a fixed trait point allocation rather than experimentation or customization. Just when people need to be experimenting the most — with a new character — trying new builds and seeing what works best for them, they are limited to what they can open up easily or buy. Since gold is harder to earn at lower levels and the quests are for higher levels than when the character can allocate the trait points, then it seems as though we are being led to placing our trait points in the order easiest to open rather than by what playing style we prefer. And yet, the pre-release notes implied the trait changes were designed to encourage customization. Perhaps it encourages customization at higher levels of play, but it sure discourages it at low levels (unless it is an alternate character on an account with an 80 level character that can act as a gold feeder.)
4) Trait progression is too slow. Half the fun of a new character is leveling up and getting more powerful. There is a huge disadvantage to being a non-max level character. The closer one gets to level 80, the less a disadvantage. To counter-act that, a new character has to progress faster through the lower levels. A linear progression just doesn’t feel as satisfying as one skewed to progress faster at lower levels. I really like that GW2 requires the same xp for each level, but I liked the earlier trait system where characters progressed quickly through early levels. It meant a character felt powerful fast enough to be satisfying. I think this trait change slows the progression down too far.
5) This trait change encourages the creation of a single character and makes it less likely a person will go through the effort of leveling up and aquiring traits for very many alternates. The traits open per character, not per account. For anything that is character-based, the cost/time expenditure has to be smaller. The previous system required the aquisition of only 3 manuals per character at a total cost of 3g 10silver now it costs 43g 360skill points per character (or a whole lot of time invested in quests one might not have done otherwise.) What is ironic is that this change comes at the same time as the change to make dye account-based. Kind of like making the same mistake as the one being fixed.
6) This trait change again penalizes the solo player and player that belongs to a small guild. If one has a group of people one plays with who can help take a new character through the necessary quests, then these trait quests won’t be too much of a problem. However, they provide a serious disadvantage to the solo player and one more strike against small guilds.
I love the dye and armor/weapon skin changes. I like the concept behind the trait changes, but I hope there will be some tweaking to make this better for the beginning player and those of us who like to have more than one character. I would really like to enjoy the myriad storylines — without having to find other people to play with.
What a wonderful solution —- giving us a guild activity that earns influence rather than loot.
These bounties maybe be of little interest to large guilds, but they will make it possible for our small guild to earn other guild content. Last month’s content was discouraging for our guild – bright shinies far out of reach. With this new approach, you have brought us back into the game.
Thank you for targeting some content toward the guilds with less frequent players. Thank you for supporting small guilds!
I have been having DC problems since the last update — Friday Mar 15. Disconnect sends me to my character select screen. I can hit return immediately and get a blank screen while my character loads. After a fairly long wait with the blank screen, I am back in.
I haven’t checked to see if the error code is always the same, but the one time I wrote it down it was:
7:11:3:189:101
I play on the Yak’s Bend server. When I first log on, it doesn’t happen as much and the frequency tends to increase with the length of time I am logged on. When I log completely off (including closing the log in screen) then I can reset the frequency to a longer interval.
The frequency is also dependent on the number of people in the map. The problem is worse with more people and in the wee hours (PST) the problem almost disappears (almost but not quite — I still DC, but with lots of play between DCs.)
The other thing that affects frequency of DC is Maw. I can get through Maw without DCing if I just logged on and I catch Maw the first time it comes up when I am in the map. If I miss Maw and wait for another cycle, then I will be DC’d during Maw and not be able to get back into the map until Maw has completed.
If I successfully complete Maw with one character and select another character and go back to Wayfarer’s Foothills, then I am guaranteed to DC during the middle of the next Maw. In other words, I can do Maw, then I have to log off completely and log back on to do Maw on another character.
Thank you for looking into this, Jason.
Question I’d like answered:
Was the bias for large guilds (represented by reward system and restricted new content of latest update) a deliberate trend? Or are there plans to do something for the small guilds?
Those of us with very small guilds would like to know whether to hang on to them or give up and disband.
Thanks — I look forward to the show.
I understand the need to provide content for larger guilds, but why exclude small guilds? Many of us in small guilds care less for the rewards than we do for content & play experience.
My suggestion:
Keep rewards and boosts at the high influence cost — that will make big guilds happy & give them bragging rights and goodies for recruiting.
Make the guild missions and new content accessible with little or no influence cost. Then the small guilds can at least experience the content. They may not have the numbers to successfully complete a mission but that can also serve as a motivator to get all the guild members online at the same time for a special session.
I am also disappointed and concerned about the new approach to guilds. This approach discourages small guilds and will probably result in just a few really huge guilds.
I would be happy with any change that gave small guilds the same chance at boosts and content. When dungeons party size is limited to 5, it makes sense to make guild missions and rewards (like boosts) available and easy to earn for small guilds. I could understand this new emphasis better if dungeon parties needed to be 25.
Our guild is small, PvE only and made up of RL friends and family members (4 generations of players!) All of us were GW1 players for 6+ years. Our schedules rarely coincide and frequently we play solo or only 2 people at a time.
Up until now, we have chugged along slowly earning influence. Many of us are avid gamers who like our boosts and bennies. Our slow rate of influence accumulation was frustrating, but okay because (up until this last update) the rewards were minor and we didn’t lose out on much.
Now there is content and boosts we want, but doing the math — they are beyond our capabilities. Already our most avid gamers are choosing to spend their time in other guilds further decreasing our ability to earn influence. I am afraid that this update spells the end for a guild that has kept us in touch with each other even as our lives scattered us across the continent.
I have liked a lot of things about this game. I like the artwork, I like the puzzles, I like the achievments, I like the living story and having new content with plotlines added. But I also prefer the intimacy of a small guild. I like knowing who I am playing with and I don’t like the pressure and politics that comes with a large guild. Large guild play is just not for me and if that is the direction the game is going, then I probably won’t like future changes any better.
I will try to keep our guild alive in the hopes that there will be changes in the future that will help small guilds. But if our guild disbands, I will probably drift back to GW1 or on to another game. I know the chance I might find one of my friends on line has encouraged me to play. Without that, the game isn’t as much fun.
In Beta we were always asked if something made us feel we had made a lasting change on the world. Working together to make a new city would really create that feeling!
wait! Using a transmutation stone makes something account bound not soulbound?
I, too, would like stowing the ranger pet to work like swapping weapons or hiding/unhiding armor —- an option that stays until it is switched back manually.
A PvE instance would work for me.
Thank you for this suggestion, Seera. I, too, am a casual player who would appreciate more ‘training dungeons’. I don’t want to slog down a PUG and moving to a dungeon friendly guild is not an option for me (I am a leader of a small guild of RL friends & family — who rarely play at the same time.) This suggestion would help our whole group advance into playing dungeons at their own pace.
I like the variety in dailies. Thank you, for the change!
I agree. I end up soloing events because I tend to play at unpopular times and it is discouraging to spend a long time beating a group event for less than if I was in a group.
No idea how it could be implemented, but I’d use such a feature, too. As it is, I take copious notes on paper to try to jog my memory.
I also would like this option. I am strictly a PvE player and have avoided WvW, but I would love the option to go in and explore this map, too.
yes!
I find myself avoiding the collection events because I get tired of all the steps it takes to turn in the items. A “one click” or hot key option would be very nice and make these events more enjoyable.
I would like a non-interactive option for this same reason. I used to clear in GW1 just so I could wander and enjoy the graphics. I miss that.
A mini equipment slot would be great! Maybe on the hero panel near the trinkets or armor or weapons? After all, those are up all the time, too.
ooo…. remote looting option! yes, please!
I prefer to keep my gear stats private. I seem to have a different play style than many people and, while it works well for me, others don’t seem to understand (without a ton of explanation) how it works. People assume that if I’m not playing something standard, then I don’t know what I’m doing. I’d rather avoid all that and keep my skills and gear stats private.
I wouldn’t mind finding out skin names, though!
I agree. If a change were made, it would be nice to have it as an option — hair hidden under helm or hair showing.
unlikely, but it would be nice.
The problem with Dynamic leveling is it is a one-system-fits-all solution.
I would like to suggest a more versatile solution: increase the amount of embedded higher level optional content (such as dungeon entrances and triggered events) in low level areas and ease off on the Dynamic Scaling.
This would draw experienced players into the region (enabling them to stumble onto on-going events and help lower-level players) while keeping an area (except for a localized, easily avoided event) friendly enough for players who wish less of a ‘challenge’.
Dynamic leveling as the sole solution includes the following assumptions:
1) all players become bored if foes are too easy to beat.
2) all players progress in gameplay ability as they progress through a game.
3) all players want a challenge.
This leaves out a surprisingly large segment of loyal GW1 players. Not a majority, by any means, and not a vocal segment, but a fair number of loyal players. (Okay… so I don’t know that for sure, but I do know that it leaves out me and a number of my friends and family.)
Those left out include:
1) those who are drawn to beautiful graphics and want to wander in an interactive gallery. (Kudos to Arenanet artists!) A relaxing stroll was possible in GW1 by clearing an area or being overpowered. It is impossible to stop and see the scenery in GW2 because foes respawn and are too ‘challenging’ to ignore even in low areas.
(Although I know it isn’t practical, I would gladly use a ‘non-interactive mode’: give up advancements and interacting with nodes, viewpoints, chests, etc to be able to wander as an invulnerable ghost.)
2) those who progressed slowly in gameplay ability. For example: seniors did not grow up gaming and it takes time to figure out all the mechanics. Sometimes things like hand tremors mean some game-skills (like double-clicking for dodge) will never be mastered.
(My 80+ year-old mother has a hand tremor. My 80plus year-old dad has had to make new characters because as his characters level, he just gets killed and can’t do anything. Dynamic scaling is scaling him right out of the game! After 6 years of GW1, I am still working on trying to kite while using skills. We represent a loyal, affluent player base.)
3) And those who sought the low areas of GW1 for the emotional and psycological benefits of power gaming. Having areas that represent little or no challenge can be very important when RL isn’t that great and one needs a boost of self confidence.
Did you know that there are counselors who recommended GW1 to clients?
Did you know people were playing GW1 as therapy for depression?
Did you know people were playing GW1 to help emotionally recover from serious illness?
GW characters always progress. Challenge level in GW1 (and therefore amount of frustration) could be controlled. These aspects meant GW1 could be used as encouragement and to regain a sense of control when RL sucked. (And a powerful avatar whose looks don’t have social ramifications can be a nice break, too.)
My rant/argument:
If you look at GW1’s gaming population, it attracted a larger percentage of older players than most games, a larger porportion of women players and a broader spectrum of players spread across all age groups and social/economic groups. I would venture to suggest they are an even larger porportion of the remaining players in GW1.
While the more typical gaming profile describes people who will play through a game and leave, these less typical gaming groups tend to ‘bond’ with their characters and game environment thereby making them very loyal.
Dynamic leveling, with its one-size-fits-all solution, risks alienating some of the very players that made GW1 so successful.
These are not a vocal segment of players and I question whether they are adequately represented here on the forums. Many are quiet, steady players who find it a challenge to play against low level foes and are embarassed by their play limitations. Because of their self-conciousness, they tend to play solo and do not chat much.
They won’t post on a forum because they are sure that their problems aren’t things other people have to deal with and they don’t want to impose on others. They rarely ask for help and struggle on or simply give up. These are the ‘internet introverts’.
Please, Arenanet, as you look for solutions to the challenges we players give you — Please don’t forget those of us who don’t fit the standard player profile.
Thank you.
yes!
I was glad that I wasn’t limited to only seeing armor that fit my character, but I would like the option to limit to one type. It would save me from buying something I can’t use (which I have done more than once!)
Are you kidding? If waypoints were free, you’d never see anyone anywhere except where they planned to be. With waypoints costing something, people sometimes choose to make the run instead of teleporting. People run along, get caught up in events, see other people along the way—it’s great. If waypoints were free, the spaces in between would become desolate wastelands, inhabited only by NPCs, monsters, and those few players that have yet to unlock the waypoint.
Yes!
I certainly run more places and end up helping out in events because the waypoints cost money.
But it would help if there were one place in each area that we could travel to for free. I think it would increase the numbers of people in each map. I know I would return frequently to many areas if there were just a place to get into them.
Or at least make one waypoint in each area cheap.
Yes please!
I love having my inventory show up when the bank opens. The money has been the missing bit and causes me to open my inventory anyway.
I loved the ‘deposit all’ option that GW1 had and miss that, too.
This explains so much! I’ve wondered why my husband keeps ignoring the red circles. He just stands there & gets hit — or dodges right into them. It never occurred to me that it was a result of his red/green color-blindness. He gets so frustrated when he dies more frequently than the rest of us in the party.
Please, Arena, I think this is important and would make a significant difference in play experience for many people.
Perhaps adding a yellow line to the outer red line on the circles — a double line. I’m not a programmer, but it seems to me redefining the outer perimeter line as two-tone might be a simple change?