Guild Wars 2

It would be great if the guild could add “prize” items to the chest and the game rewarded them randomly to looters while most of the time giving just normal whites and blues.

I would suggest this could only be something maxed guilds can do, so that the same NPC that collects donations could be used for guild members to add items to the raffle.

This would be a great way for people who have tons of tomes of knowledge or PvP reward track items to be able to donate them to the guild chest and other newer members of the guild could have a nice surprise.

It is a neutral change in nature because no new items are created, they only change hands, so it does not affect the economy or anything like that.

Another good reason to visit the guild hall everyday and for the guild member to work for!

That is the low hanging fruit, changes that can be made without a lot of development effort.

Now, for other things that are potentially more involved:

• make the font size proportional to the number, but only for numbers and not the text around them:
  • So, 0 damage made should be the smallest readable size.
  • From there, the higher the damage the largest the font size.
  • This way 52 damage and 15K damage are clearly different at a glance.
• Note CC in the combat log:
  • Make CC the player applies yellow
  • Make CC applied to the player red again, but in text, not a number.
  • i.e.: You <yellow>chill</yellow> [enemy name].
• Note break bar actions in combat log:
  • i.e.: You break the defiance of [enemy name] with <yellow>chill</yellow> (this instead of the normal CC message, not in addition to).
  • [enemy name] defiance is broken!
  • [enemy name] defiance was restored!
• Note auras, death shroud and other profession specific states in combat log using pink.
• Note boons using blue.

After these changes are applied, color would have a consistent meaning and everything that is happening would have a very clear representation in combat log.

Revieweing combat log before and after gear changes would show the differeces between them in a very obvious way. It would also be obvious which enemies are making more damage and receiving less of it.

I am interested in hearing from the community if you think this would be of any use at all for you and if you think this would improve in any way your gaming experience and whether this would prompt you to use the combat log more or not.

I am also interested in hearing from Arena Net whether this is something that is technically possible at all and if it is, whether you think if would improve the user experience in a significant way to justify its implementation.

Please let me know what you think.

(I apologize if something similar to this has been proposed before, if that is the case, please let me know and I will swiftly go away )

The result of all this is that the combat log conveys little visual information and the information that is sent is mixed and confusing.

What I propose is for small things to change in the log to make it much more obvious for the user at a glance, instead of having to make a huge effort and mathematical calculations:

• make all unimportant text gray. If it is not damage, healing, cc, make it gray.
• make all healing text blue. self healing and allies healing should be a different shade of blue.
• make all damage you make green.
• make all critical damage you make orange.
• make all condition damage you make white.
• make all damage you receive red. As a player, I do not care if the enemy critically hit me, all I care is the damage the enemy made. I also do not care about visually distinguishing if it was condition damage or not, I can find that out reading the log later.

All these rules are broken in the combat log:

• red is good, the critical damage you make.
• orange is bad, the damage you receive.
• orange is also good, the normal damage you make (!?).
• red is also something that failed, like a skill you tried to use while in cool-down (!!??)
• falling damage does not even appear in the log, making it seem utterly unimportant.
• condition damage is purple (what?)
• white and gray are used to distinguish between your actions and the enemy actions.
• healing applied with reviving does not appear in the log at all.
• heals you make to yourself are green.
• gray is also used to tell you about the experience you gained O_O!
• when you damage something for 60 points of damage or with 15K points of damage it looks exactly the same, making higher damage attacks and attack progression indistinguishable.
• same when you heal yourself or an ally heals you for little or a lot: they look the same.
• crowd control effects are not even noted in the combat log.
• break bar actions are not noted in the combat log either.

(I will break this in several messages since it is not letting me post it all)
I would like to make a proposal on how to improve the combat log chat window. I know that this is not considered a very important feature and that not many people would think it deserves improvement, but I think that is because of the way it is implemented.

I think the game makes an effort to associate colors with how good things are:

• white things are common junk, not valuable at all.
• blue things are fine, have value only in bulk.
• green things are more interesting, somewhat valuable.
• gold (yellow) things are rare, more valuable.
• orange things are exotic, really valuable.
• fucsia things are ascended, they are unique and bound to you and your account.
• purple things are legendary, status symbols, associated with greatness.

Colors are also used to tell you about the environment:

• white is harmless.
• yellow is friendly until provoked.
• green is an ally, someone or something that can help you and you cannot damage.
• red is bad, an enemy.

Obtena.7952:

murven.7581:

When did everyone including ArenaNet start thinking that everyone should craft?

They don’t. That’s why the ratio of stats increase between ascended and exotic armor is so low and the ratio of ascended to exotic armor cost is so high. That’s why you can outfit you’re other slots with BiS through NOT crafting them.

First of all you insist in claiming that 2% == 0% which is certainly false. If you earn $1000 each month and your employer offers you a 2% increase, would your answer be: “no, thanks, $20 is nothing, you can keep it”?

Second, you fail to acknowledge the fact that people who like to craft should be able to sell the result of their effort to others.

Third, you are not willing to acknowledge the fact that when someone is willing to spend gold on a premium, no matter how small or useless it is, they should be entitled to do so, basically because it is their gold and they can use it however they want. Now, I agree that there should be something on top of that gold, which is addressed by ascended materials, but what I do not agree with is the fact that the only way to use ascended materials is crafting, when it makes much more sense to just use the mystic forge mechanism for that.

No matter how many times you repeat that 2 is equal to 0, that won’t make it true.

Bhawb.7408:

There is no such thing as a reputable “source” for video games like this.

Yes, I understand, and I value the information you are giving me, it is really helpful.

testpig.5018:

So may i offer a suggestion.. Allow those who craft, to be able to sell those ascended items they are making. remove the account bound restriction on crafted ascended weapons/armor/jewelry.
-Testpig

OP wrote this.

Obtena.7952:

People that like to craft don’t have a beef with crafting their gear though … so this thread doesn’t represent them correctly.

You wrote this.

I think OP represented people who like to craft perfectly. What he is suggesting is exactly what people who like to craft want.

We want to be able to craft and sell the result to those wo do not like crafting.

I think that is how the system is supposed to work.

When did everyone including ArenaNet start thinking that everyone should craft?

Bhawb.7408:

murven.7581:

Do you have any source for this information?

I will try to test this with the dummies by removing my armor.

Yes. I have played this game since beta, and have exclusively used minions in sPvP, and fairly often in WvW/PvE. I am generally considered one of the most knowledgeable people when it comes to minions.

They don’t scale.

Well, I was talking about an actual source; as reputable as you may be, your opinion cannot replace that.

But thanks for your experienced opinion, I guess I have been playing the minion master wrong all this time.

It is probably too late for me, I do not have the gold to replace my armor, so I will just keep it the way it is until I have tons of gold to waste again.

Nobody is forced to craft. Unless they want the best stats in the game.

Your point does not contradict this argument at all, it is still valid. You acknowledge that yourself in your own post.

Is having the best stats in the game pointless? maybe… but that is another thing.

You forgot to mention that it also affects the people who love to craft, but don’t have any reason to do so as we cannot sell the result of our effort to anyone else or offer our crafting services to friends, etc.

So, in total it affects:
a) the people who don’t want to craft
b) the people who want to craft

That seems like a bigger portion of the population to me…

Bhawb.7408:

Power does not make minions hit harder. Minions do not scale anything except conditions inflicted with your stats.

Do you have any source for this information?

I will try to test this with the dummies by removing my armor.

Obtena.7952:

Bombsaway.7198:

OP is right on the money. ANet has a diverse population of players. Forcing any single method in game is not going to keep population or gem purchases high. Simple as that.

WHEW! It’s a good thing that crafting isn’t forced onto anyone.

You mean it isn’t forced onto anyone as long as they are willing to play the game without having the best available stats, right?

So, basically what ArenaNet is telling everyone is:

“Do you want the best stats in the game? Well, then you have to be a grandmaster crafter!”

This is problem for many reasons, but it is especially bad for the people who like crafting, because after this the population will be full of “grandmaster crafters” who hate crafting.

Andele.1306:

Soldier – Higher usage of DS and better power scaling (both things which dont matter for mms)

Can you please elaborate on this a little more? I am curious why you think Death Shroud and better power scaling do not matter for minion masters.

I play MM and I spend half my time in death shroud (torment is a great AoE, as well as life transfer and life blast does a lot of damage with high power figures).

My dagger and my focus let me re-charge death shroud very, very fast, and I use it as often as possible, this also gives me more chances to interrupt with fear. The dagger attacks very fast, which keeps siphoning life and life force my way every time I hit.

Also, why do you think power scaling doesn’t matter when power makes every minion attack harder?

I am trying to learn from other people experiences here, so please share.

Thanks!

blutstein.2468:

Pls never go soldier or apothecary in PvE (maybe some world events but thats it…)

Can you please elaborate on this a little more? Especially the “please never” part since I do not understand why you are basically asking someone else not use a specific combination as if that affected you or other players.

I am trying to learn here.

Thanks!

Bull Zooker.1672:

bleed, poison, cripple, weakness, fear, immobilise, blind.
all from minion actives and weapon sets.
of course you would be running scepter/dagger and staff.

Well, cripple, weakness, fear, immobilise and blind are not affected by condition damage at all, so you are just using condition damage for bleed and poison coming from the scepter.

If you stopped using the scepter and used axe or dagger instead this would provide more synergy with the minions by applying vulnerability and you could forget about condition damage and focus on any other stat.

This is, of course, just a way to play, so if you think this is working for you that’s OK, but I wanted to point it out as I didn’t realize it at the beginning either and found it was much more powerful to forget about condition damage completely when using minions.

Aeok Rasgoul, from the Rasgoul Legion of Necromancers, dating back to Ascalon 250 years ago. ;-)

Condition damage in a MM? Which conditions are you applying?

As far as I know, minions don’t crit, and since minions do most of the damage precision becomes a waste of stats.

Vitality will give you a very high pool for minions to siphon to you.

The longest you stay alive the better, the key is to keep summoning them as they damage when they are alive and they damage when they die. MM with soldier’s stats can rez people and NPCs while minions kill the enemy even when your health is going down and toughness makes it possible for you to flee with low health without the chance of dying in a single hit.

Also, make sure to use the minion skills, they are very useful.

Just one additional clarification: the cost does not depend on server, the economy is global.

The problem here is that everyone is forced to level crafting. This is not about WvW vs PvE vs Dungeons vs Fractals.

This is how I think it should have been done:

1. Crafters level to 500 in order to be able to create a very expensive ascended precursor item without any stats that cannot be equipped which is created using tradeable t2, t3, t4 and t5 materials.
2. This precursor is not bound and it is tradeable.
3. You can create dragonite ingots, empyreal stars and bloodstone bricks in the mystic forge (using the same materials you use now).
4. You place this precursor in the mystic forge along a certain amount of dragonite ingots, empyreal stars and bloodstone bricks and you get your ascended piece.

This way:

1. People who only do WvW get ascended by buying the precursor created by crafters.
2. People who like crafting are rewarded for leveling to 500.
3. People who dislike crafting don’t have to do it.
4. You still need to play the game in order to get ascended pieces.
5. Ascended pieces can still be account bound.

What do you guys think about this proposal? Pros and Cons?

I would like to hear your opinion.

The only purpose of the dailies is for you to login daily and do stuff. The waypoint costs of you going to the home instance to harvest these nodes are good enough for ArenaNet as it is a small gold sink.

Vick.6805:

Hardcore players with excess gold can sidestep the time gating by buying the gated materials, which means they are paying a premium to have their BiS gear immediately. Casual players who don’t need or care about having ascended armor right away can sell their gated materials for a premium, making it an easy source of gold for players who might otherwise have a low income rate.

This would be true if it wasn’t for the fact that the current prices of damask make the profit of selling it so marginally low that casual players prefer to use it anyway. The profit does not jutify postponing your ascended armor. This happens because ascended armor is forcing everyone who wants to have it to spend lots of gold in leveling crafting, so you have a lot of people who can produce damask, making it easy for all those people to produce it when they are done with their ascended pieces, again having a negative impact on the casual player compared to the hardcore player.

If hardcore players could chose to buy it all instead of leveling the craft discipline, then the prices of damask and ascended leather would be much, much higher, because more people would skip leveling the craft.

So even if this was designed to help the casual player, in the end it didn’t have the desired effect because crafters cannot do anything with what they learned after they are done with their armor and weapons.

Leveling a second character with the same craft as another character is a waste. I advice you not to do it.

Anyone would disagree with this assessment?

morrolan.9608:

Thaddeus.4891:

The silk was dysfunctional since the beginning of the game. It was not even profitable to put it on the TP and we were better off selling it to a vendor NPC. Too much silk and way too limited use of it. They changed the situation drastically. It was necessary but is it a good thing in the long run?

But was it really that much different to mithril or thick leather?

Yes it was, along with cinnamon one of the few items in the game which was cheaper to sell to a vendor than in TP.

Having an item which is so cheap it does not make sense to trade it with other players is a situation that requires fixing, I would think this is a logical thing when you give it some consideration, after all, everything that we get except for “junk” items – which are already labeled that way and are easily sellable to vendors – should have real value in the game.

ArenaNet is trying to fix that and they have succeeded in certain instances and need to work more in other instances like cinnamon and leather.

Henri Blanche.8276:

JCROY.5730:

First of all..the game is called GUILD wars..meaning guilds and being member of one is kinda core-business to the game and people who are playing this.

Check the History of Tyria in the Wiki. You’ll find that the name Guild Wars has NOTHING to do with the kind of guilds you’re talking about.

It may not have anything to do with it in the lore, but ArenaNet has stated several times that it is an important part of the game that they intend to foster.

Arnon.1563:

Temples, Dragons and Golem give a descent amount. Everything else gives very little.
Temples and Golem with around 10 people seems to be easiest.

They should increase keep lord and and tower drops for asccended mats so we don’t have to do Dungeons and Trains.

Well, they want people to play more parts of the game, not less, so do not count on that…

There are many things they can do, but my point is that at least there is no other way to get those items than crafting, which makes it better as an option to level a craft compared to jewelcrafting.

Arnon.1563:

Even cheaper with guild comms and WvW badges.

If it’s close to the crazy prices of he other ascended gear there will not be a reason to do it. Unless they do something drastic to separate it from the others.

Exactly!

I doubt we will see ascended jewel crafting in the next patch. We are more likely to see ascended food items.

Kate Soulguard.7132:

Here are today’s prices for relevant t5 materials

• Elder wood plank: 1.2sp
• Mithril Ingot: 1.02sp
• Cured Thick Leather Square: 0.31sp
• Bolt of Silk: 7.8sp

In mid-December, a bolt of silk was about 28 copper.

Silk at 28 copper was a huge problem. It has been fixed.

Now they need to fix leather.

both silver and gold are already going up, up up… mostly because of speculation.

but my question still is: what is the point in introducing craftable ascended jewels when it is already too easy to get ascended items with laurels?

Even when I love crafting jewels I see no point in leveling this craft.

Astralporing.1957:

murven.7581:

Forward time and now several crafting disciplines have been released except for jewelry.

What do you guys think of the current status of things and how do you foresee craftable ascended jewelry will be made available in the future?

It will definitely be available in the future – and likely relatively soon. On the other hand, looking back at the topic, i find it ironic that it won’t address the main point OP mentioned. If the cost of levelling up to 500 and ascended crafting will be similar for jeweller as for other crafts, it will still remain useless. Getting ascended gear through laurels/relics will remain both cheaper and easier than trying to craft them.

Not sure how it will be addressed – assuming it will be addressed at all, which i sincerely doubt at this point.

Yes, that is still my main doubt, even as much as I like crafting, I do not see why to level jeweler when laurels is a much more efficient and cheaper way to get ascended jewerly.

I see no point in introducing craftable ascended jewels to the game at this point, when people are already skipping exotic jewels to go from green to ascended directly with laurels.

Forward time and now several crafting disciplines have been released except for jewelry.

What do you guys think of the current status of things and how do you foresee craftable ascended jewelry will be made available in the future?

Vol.7601:

Mad Rasputin.7809:

I don’t really understand the reasoning behind time gating anything in a game without a sub fee.

To prevent market shocks.

How can something have a market shock if all the chain from the time-gated item to the end result cannot be sold?

I understand this answer applies to Damask and others like that, but how does it apply to celestial? This is not even considered a very “desirable” combination for most people at this point.

We have just gone open-source ourselves with the libraries to connect to the GW2 API using C#:

https://polarisgw2.codeplex.com/

This is implemented using the Portable Class Library, which means it can be used without changes for Desktop, Windows 8, Windows Phone 7, Windows Phone 8 and potentially, even Xbox One.

This API was developed by Herberth Madrigal (yogurt.2985 in game)

Windows 8 and Windows Phone 7.5 versions of KUMQUAT are now available in their respective stores:

Windows 8: http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/app/kumquat/8a692da9-1635-4dcf-ad54-e467259fb56a

Windows Phone 7.5 and Windows Phone 8: http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=c4cf5870-0686-4980-b7b7-84f6f2c5d8c1

This app was previously release for Windows Phone 8 only.

Hi all, this is our little Windows Phone App called KUMQUAT:

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/kumquat/c4cf5870-0686-4980-b7b7-84f6f2c5d8c1

Market independent link:

http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=c4cf5870-0686-4980-b7b7-84f6f2c5d8c1

Windows 8/Windows RT version and Windows Phone 7 version to be released soon.

Currently it has Dynamic Events Tracking, but we will continue to add more features in the future as free upgrades.

The app was featured in the Windows Developer Show:
http://windowsdevelopershow.com/2013/09/episode-130-baby-travis/

Please send any feedback you may have, as well as feature requests to polaris.framework@gmail.com

Thanks!

Oh, and I agree that the lack of consistency in the coordinate systems is puzzling, especially given the fact that the exact same API where you get map_rect and continent_rect you also get coordinates already in their absolute representation for the continent, while the event details API has coordinates which depend on rectangles which are not even present there.

Anyway, it is what it is and we just have to know how it works. Thanks for all the clarification.

Thanks, I finally got it! My math was working at some point, but the inverted nature of the Y axis was causing me troubles as well and I just couldn’t understand why it was so close, but still wrong. By now I know by heart where on the map Barthol’s event starts and my little pointer was not in the sweet spot. Then I did the (1-delta) and voila!! That is exactly where Barthol sits waiting for you go talk to him!

Thank you very much, I really appreciate the time you took to explain what continent_rect meant. I just never figured out that continent_rect and map_rect were exactly the same rectangle within different coordinate systems.

I guess I am not fully understanding what map_rect and continent_rect are in the map_floor API.

In my mind, content_rect should always be [[0,0],[32768,32768]], but for Queensdale it is [[9856,11648],[13440,14080]].

I know I am looking at this from the wrong perspective, but I need to understand how and why. If anyone has any guidance I would really appreciate it.

Thanks, I will take a look at it

Has anyone been able to infer how location works for the event details API? I have been able to map PointOfInterest.Coord very well to the tile API, but I am still unable to see any relationship between the data in EventDetails.Location and the tile API. At this point I am unsure if this location can really be used to locate an event in the map and how. Does anyone now?

Here is an example:

https://api.guildwars2.com/v1/event_details.json?lang=en&event_id=C4A63BCF-B6F9-45E8-87AD-0C94706B1202

{"events":{"C4A63BCF-B6F9-45E8-87AD-0C94706B1202":{"name":“Defend Barthol on his way to the Old Armory.”,level,map_id,“flags”:[],“location”:{"type":“cylinder”,center,
11993,
-1120],height,radius,rotation

As you can see, location contains a type, which seems to be a geometry, and a center, which is apparently an X,Y,Z value, but I am unsure how I can use this center to locate the initial position of the event on the map.

Any ideas?

In most markets I go into these days I do not even care about the prices others are listing their items for anymore. All I care about is my profit margin and I set profit margin goals of 20-22%. If the market is not able to give me this profit, I just get out of that market. If the margin is currently 50-60%, that is a great market for me since all the offers I make will look like xmas sale and sell so fast that I can rinse and repeat right away. Yes, all these people trying to get those 50-60% margins will be mad, but I get my margin goals fast and easy and that is all I care about. That is usually how the market works in real life, anyway.

Probably a bag:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bone_Chip

Dee Jay.2460:

This isn’t about leveling cooking.

This isn’t about it being “easy” or “cheap”.

This isn’t directly about how “fun” it is to cycle through millions of possible combinations only to find out you’re missing one of 200 possible ingredients.

This is about how unnecessarily complicated and inconvenient it is to cook some of the higher level recipes, especially considering we’re talking about something that is fairly trivial after all.

Why must a diagram for cooking some pretty standard food compete with a Legendary item as far as complexity goes?

What you see as unnecessarily complicated and inconvenient, other people who love crafting see as fun and entertainment. If you are part of the first group of people who do not derive joy from the crafting, then you should probably stay away from crafting and just buy the items in the trading post from people who love the crafting process.

Legendary food (meaning food with high demand) should be harder and inconvenient to craft, this creates a better market for it.

They should add another tier in between exotic and legendary which are easier to obtain and are less flashy for casual gamers. This way, really good players still keep their legendary bling and more casual gamers get a consolation prize.

The only reason for crafting is the joy of crafting. If you do not derive joy from the actual process of crafting, then you probably should not even start it. It is expensive and the things that you can build for the most part you will have to sell for cheap. Even the limited number of things you can benefit from will always require you to invest crafting effort in them, so if you do not enjoy the process, you will find it boring and not worth it.

Now, if you simply find the act of creating stuff from raw materials delightful, then it is more of an investment, just like everything else in the game.

No, it is not important.

You can stop doing it, just go and buy everything from the trading post.

Preferably from me :-P

I agree you should have more collectible space to store you middle-tier items, but reducing the complexity is a bad, bad idea. Some people are complaining that some of the recipes are going for too little copper in the TP. The cause of this is excessive offer. Imagine if the profession was less convoluted! nothing would be worth making at all as all would be for sale for cheap.

I advocate on the contrary: add more recipes! add more combinations! add higher tier recipes! and add different combination recipes in the middle as well. Adding variety reduces the offer if people are not forced to make them to level up the craft.

lisamee.2408:

Since just selling the ingredients/matts is more often the best profit, why won’t crafters just raise the price of their completed item? Why are crafted items listed on the TP for less than the components are worth?

If crafters would raise their prices on completed items, then it would be worth more then its ingredients. Is it because there are so many “master crafted” and like items that are world drops, not player made, and auto-priced?

You an charge all you want, as can anyone else; the trading post is a free-market and it behaves as such. The phenomenon you point out has to do with different things:

- People craft things just for leveling crafting: we are all leveling crafting at the moment and we all go and build stuff we do not need just for leveling. The consequence of this is that the market is full with things people do not need, they just want to get some of the investment back. The way to fix this is to add variety, so that you can level your character without having to actually go through all the possible combinations, this way some of the combinations will have higher offer and demand than others.

- People can have all crafting professions: since any character can have all crafting professions and we get 5 character slots by default, it is very common that everyone can make every possible crafted item in the game, without having to buy it. Some people still don’t do this, but this added with the reason above, creates more offer than demand. The way to fix this is to add more crafting professions, for example, just like chef, there should be professions for consumables like tonics, instead of having them attached to the other professions. This way people would have to choose if they want to craft their gear and by their tonics or the other way around. Also, switching to a different profession should cost your more than just a fee. It should set you back in the progress of the other profession, so if you switch from tailor to armorsmith and your tailoring was 400, when you go back to tailor it will be only 375 and you would have to level it again to make 400 items. This has the effect of making 400 items less abundant and it also makes people thing twice before they switch to a different profession and it would also reduce the offer overall.

- Some people do not craft, they just use the trading post, massively: Some people use the rules of free market and their abundance of gold to use the flipping margins to make money. They go and buy cheap (but more expensive than regular people) and sell expensive (but less expensive than regular people). This pushes the market making the margins narrower and narrower. I do not see a way to fix this other than adding variety of items and creating item-spending activities, to reduce offer.

So, overall I think the market is working exactly as expected, and maybe at some point, when all people have their crafting professions maxed, things will be different and the offer will be reduced a little bit, but there are things that ArenaNet could do to improve the problem, and they are doing it by introducing new crafting recipes all the time. However, I think they can be much more aggressive with the changes I listed above.

What do you guys think?