Guild Wars 2

2 cents (corrected for inflation

Preface, I’m a casual player, no interest in flipping or playing the TP. I bought the game to play the game, not to experiment with econ. That’s simply not my bag. Would I like to see vendor prices higher? Yes. Why? Because it would make Vendor products more affordable. Not Trading Post products, vendor products. I’m thinking of things like Tier 3 cultural weapons and armor. Things who’s utility is very very limited but who’s price far outstrips what they would sell for if placed on the open market.

These items prices are fixed by Anet and don’t represent their value, in my humble opinion. For a casual player like myself, grinding out 100g for a set of Tier 3 is an arduous chore. Playing 2-10 hours a week, which is what I as a working adult and father with many interests am willing to devote to GW2, puts these items on a 6 month to a year scale for acquisition. That sort of glacial progression is not of interest to me personally. I could see myself doing it for a single character, maybe two, but definitely not all. An increase of vendor sell prices would make the high vendor prices of these items less galling and make me feel that my play time was rewarded.

When it comes to the Trading Post, the first law of economics applies. Price will be what the market will bare. If crafting is unprofitable, people will not do it. If precursors can sell for 500g or 1000g, then they will. That is not bad econ, its simply an economic reality that players need to adjust their thinking to. Just because you could make a gold ducat in game X crafting doesn’t mean that you have to be able to do so here in GW2. That’s simply not how the GW2 economy functions. It’s a fact that if you’re a rational human being you will learn through observation and extrapolation. The community sets the value for these items through its collective purchasing power. You have to assess what is important to you and adjust your play appropriately.

For myself, I have no ambition to obtain these high cost items. I’m primarily interested in obtaining a certain look with a certain allotment of time invested. If I see that an object, like a legendary requires an investment of time beyond what I’m willing give, then I accept that object is beyond my means. That is not a bad economy, that is a realistic assessment of my power in an active economy. Returning to my original point, I do not say the prices for even Tier 3 are in any way “wrong.” They are wrong for me. There’s plenty of folks willing and able to invest more time and acquire them. My perspectives on the validity of their pricing is just that, my own self interested perspective. The only way I could see Anet making the adjustments I would want would be if they were concerned about causal players like myself losing interest. Then they would have an incentive, but it would not be because the economics of the situation were broken.

… and still exists…

So I tried out the LS content this weekend, it was painful. My system generally runs between 40-60 FPS (vsync’d to monitor refresh, so it’s limited), smooth. Just the number of folks at the event brought that down to 10FPS, making it largely a matter of ressing and running. So, not fun to say the least. So I say to myself, “Self, it’s new content. Everyone’s there, We’ll come back later (I know the big event is one time, no big deal. I just want to check out the area.)”

So I come back today to try one of the little events. Now mind you, I’m in all exotics, the whole nine yards. I stumble on a “gather the golem parts” and evade the wyrms quest. I figure, ok, I’ll try it. Also, note, not a glass cannon build here. So I’m in there, I get a couple parts. BAM. One shoted. I’m like, what the?! So I repair return, try again. BAM one shotted again.

After seeing this and the killer GM philosophy in sections of the Personal Story and the mob mentality of Orr, I’m sensing a theme. That theme being, ANet has no idea how to moderate difficulty. This is not fun and if the rest of the new content is like this, I don’t see why I’d bother with it. I enjoy the game, I enjoy combat in the game, but only the most masochistic would call this content good. Learn to balance your threat, Anet. Else people are just going to turn off.

Obviously they’re the “28 Days Later” variety of zombies and not the classic shamblers. They co-ordinate better than pretty much any other mob type as well, so maybe they’re choreographed, like in the old Thriller video or something.

One thing that a very visible in game GM presence would do that has not really been mentioned is act as good PR. Whether it’s an ineffectual token effort or not, youtube shots of GM’zilla (Dhuum) laying down the smack would go a long way to making the anti-botting community feel something concrete was being done. Perception is indeed part of the war. Whether its value equates with the resources it would take to put “boots on the ground” is debatable but it’s something to consider.

Personally, I’m dubious about the potential success of any automated system for bot detection. People learn how to beat AI all the time and what is a bot detection system but a specialized AI for categorizing players behaviors. I think in the end, you need server cops. They’d be over worked and underpaid most likely, but I think a handful of in game GMs per server and you’d have an anti-bot system that has the potential to adapt as fast as the botters with an army of vengeful angry gamers for spotters. Give them scary in game avatars and people who aren’t botters will run like hell as soon as they seem ‘em while the robots keep running in circles and and GM’zilla crushes them underfoot.

One short expansion on my thoughts, then I’ll let this drop.

I’ve used the cash shop, specifically for bank space and character expansion slots (altitis confirmed and untreatable.) I will never… ever… ever pay cash money for something that COULD give me an item/skin/etc. in a game. Whether it be real life cash or fake life gold, my view is that gambling is a sucker’s game. If you enjoy it, great. I don’t. Beyond buying the occasional Mega Millions ticket, in case lightning strikes three times in the same place consecutively, I don’t gamble and here’s the point that I’m belaboring getting around to. If you’re unhappy with that model of monetization that ANet has setup… don’t pay them. It’s that simple really. They are indeed in business to make money. If they discover this system doesn’t do it for them, you can bet that they will find other ways to part us from our coin. I suggest it be with lots of town clothing options, because I’m a total clothes kitten. Whatever they choose though, vote with your dollar/ducats. ANet will get the message. No need to worry there.

drops two cents in the bucket

Something I don’t understand. Folks are angry because they gamble and they lose? At its core, that’s what’s up, yes? You can’t make a pretense of estimating odds from a hundred chests. That’s no way near statistically significant (math background). You would need thousands and thousands of chests to start getting any real picture of what’s going on with the RNG. Regardless, whether the drop is 5%, 0.5% or 0.000005%, the point is still the same. When you gamble, you accept risk. You’re buying scratch off lottery tickets in a virtual world, for the sake of Ned. The best case scenario in which you win, you end up with nothing to show for it but a few pixels and some limited cool factor you’ll care about for maybe a month or two before you move onto the next cool thing. So reality check, do not spend your real life money gambling unless you’re completely comfortable losing that money.

I use them actually. In my experience, it’s higher damage than my shortbow and when I pull too much agro with my daggers, it lets me kite and debuff the mob (often a champ that’s become too amorous) while the rest of the folks around beat on it. When they regain agro, the daggers come back out. All weapons are situational. The trick is figuring out which situations you like and arranging for those ones to occur.

The event eventually finishes, so you get your loot/reward off the dragon. The time spent fighting low level mobs is rewarded by the drops from them, so you could join in and reap those rewards yourself. If the dragon’s not going down in a timely fashion as far as you’re concerned, there’s many other zones and events to go check out that give the same rewards. Point being, with so much else in need of attention, why devote dev time to and event that’s actually functioning as intended? Just because it’s not working the way you think it should, doesn’t mean it’s broken.

Yes, yes, thousand times yes. Respawn is out of control in this game all over the place. I have killed a mob, turned around to kill a second only to be attacked by the respawn of the first I just finished off. That’s not challenging, that’s just excessive. It’s the “killer GM” design philosophy that has showed up in many sections of the Personal Story. I enjoy challenges, challenges can be overcome through good tactics and skillful play. Being zerg’d by the “undead” hordes of the mobs you just killed returning prematurely from their very very temporary deaths turns the game into survival horror. If I wanted to play Left For Dead, I would play Left For Dead. At least hold up on the respawn until I’ve moved away 30 paces or so.

I wondered if it was just me, but the load times do seem increased. For example, at startup I can now see each portrait for my characters get populated, whereas before it was just “blip” all there. It’s not ages for me (SSD, Crucial) but it is noticeably longer.

TC (Tarnished Coast) here. I go out of my way to pick people up. If I see a down player on the mini-map, I’ll make a b-line for them to see if I can get them back on their feet and not get myself killed. By eliminating node competition and allowing shared loot on mobs, Anet got rid of two of the things that makes players in MMOs turn selfish and rude. There’s still going to be trolls in any community, but the environment in this game doesn’t set player gains against good behavior the way so many others do. Excellent design choice, Anet. A thumbs up to all you other helpful folks out there in Tyria.

I would love to see in game GM characters bot smiting. Perhaps with over the top visual effects, explosions and maybe a new form of dynamic event where the bot characters get turned attackable by the rest of the general populace. That would go a long way to generating some good PR for Anet, even if it didn’t change much of a thing on the bot front.

Note for the context impaired- this posting is intended to be humorous, though I WOULD love to see such a thing, I don’t expect to and the suggestion should not be taken terribly seriously.

drops two cents in the mystic forge of development

I’d like to see the outfits that are on all the NPCs unlocked for Town Clothing via the BLT.

I’d also like to see non-class armors unlocked in similar fashion, at least for the non-prestige items (dungeon gear, exotics, etc.). For example, a thief be able to put on cloth items for town clothing.

That shouldn’t effect PvP in any significant way and shouldn’t devalue end game achievements while giving us some variety. Thanks for your brief attention.

drops two bits in
My Flame Eye that I got with my elementalist has been broken since the first transmutation I did on it. Shows up fine in the character loading screen, but not in game. Not at my gaming machine ATM though, so no screen shot.

drops two cents in the bucket
Love the game, but broken events are currently the #1 gripe I have with it. I report EVERY one I come on, with a screen shot of the location on the map as well as details on the bug. I come on them every time I play, generally between 2 the 6 stuck events in a gaming session. It’s a major problem. Dynamic Events are one of the core selling points of the game. Implement a reset of some sort, Anet. Do daily reboots. Come up with something.

>.> I’ve not noticed any problems with the class myself. In fact, I generally find I can take on more mobs (PvE only here, I don’t PvP at all yet) with my elementalist than I can with my thief. I should note that it got much better after I set aside my staff fixation and started working with dual daggers. I’d say experiment with other weapons and atunements before calling for a overall class buff. Just my two bits on the matter.

Oh and as for the downed state, I’ve yet to be in a situation where ANY of my downed abilties have saved me on any of my characters regardless off class. Pretty much if I drop and it’s not within a hit or two of being dead itself, I am screwed. Often though, that’s my own fault for biting off more than I can chew.

That would be what I was afraid of. Why ANet in their infinite wisdom would decide to make the cutoff for rare runes four levels above the first set of rare gear you can make, I don’t really understand. Hence the thought that it must be a bug. However, I can see that it may indeed be by design. Irritating.

Ok, so I have six rare runes hanging out in my bank for when my elementalist turned 39 (the stated minimum level on them). She’s got a full set of rare cloth I crafted, (level 35 cloth). Having just turned 39, I try to apply them and I get bupkiss. They show “red” icons, as in unable to use. Why would this be? I don’t seem to remember having this problem on my Thief with her 35 level armor. However, I can’t be totally certain of that. To me though, an item that says level required 39 means just that. Why then can I not use them? Bug? Anyone else seeing this issue as well?

<== Color Management Specialist

Quick way to test if it’s profiling issue would be to screenshot it on your Mac, then open the capture in PS(photoshop) and strip it’s profile if Grab applied one. Next send the image to your PC and see if it’s washed out. If you have bright vibrant color on the PC but dull color of the same image on your Mac, then the Mac’s profile is getting in the way. Everything on a Mac gets filtered through the display profile via Colorsync. There’s no way that I know of to disable it.

You might try an alternate display profile than the one that ships with your Mac. sRGB comes to mind which you can get from here:

http://www.color.org/srgbprofiles.xalter

Theoretically you should be able to download that ICC and put it in

Hard Disk:Library:ColorSync:Profiles:Displays

To make it available from your Display:Color Preferences panel. There may also be utilities that will let you use a custom ICC profile for specific applications, though I’ve never had to go looking for such. Would be worth doing a big of google digging though, if you don’t want to be switching profiles all the time manually.

P.S. As an aside, those IPS monitors SHOULD have wonderful color. I use them on PC and Mac and they’re much more capable than conventional TN displays. So if the profile is hobbling them, Apple’s doing themselves a major disservice.

Seconded, this is being discussed in game ATM on Tarnished Coast. TP appears broken as the OP describes, can’t purchase, prompted to refresh with no effect. Ticket opened via in game Bug report.

This quest was hell. After many failed attempts, my final strategy that got me past it on my elementalist (fire spec, yeah… not so good here) was to switch atunements like a schizophrenic. First earth to get the tanky elemental pet out, then water to setup a heal field, then fire to blast away, then air to run like hell. Repeat that over several times and forget about any help from the NPCs. Oh and this was all to kill the lieutenant boss before the main boss. The main boss dropped relatively easily in comparison to Doc Howler. This is the mission that taught me that “elementalist” means character who uses ALL the elements to survive, not just one or two.

drops two cents in the bucket

I’ve enjoyed most everything in GW2 that I’ve tried so far. Personal Stories have been the exception. For example, at around level 20 or so, my Thief (now 65) had to take on “The Ringmaster” in Divinity Reach. At level 20, I think I had two utilities, a couple trait points. What got spawned on me was about 8 throw away mobs, four lieutenants and an elite. I had my short bow and my daggers, for variety of strategy and I kited and pulled them out of the group and did a half dozen other things. I still died. A lot. So much so that I gave it up and came back later after my temper had cooled.

A previous poster put it perfectly, the Personal Stories have the “killer DM” disease written all over them. I’m a tabletop gamer from way back. I’ve known several of those folks who get their jollies from killing off a group of player characters. Those guys quickly find themselves playing alone or not at all. There’s challenging your players and then there’s slapping them in the face and punishing them for not coming up with YOUR solution to the problem you’ve posed. That’s lazy game design and there’s no excuse for it. I realize this is not the tabletop, there’s limits to what you can do and the number of outs you can leave us as players and keep the challenge up. However, if you had beta players telling you this was a problem and you didn’t listen, shame on you ANet.

To close, I think there’s a basic conflict in the Person Stories design. By calling these missions “Personal Stories,” you set us up with an expectation. That being that you want to tell us a story in them. Combat should be the dressing to that story, not the meat of the meal. As it sits now, after the frustration that many of those PS missions give us, we could give a crap about what happened in your story. We don’t care that we finally succeeded in figuring out the A-B-B-A button mash combined with trait 5 linked with power 7 combo that kills the boss. All we’re feeling is angry that we had to waste an hour of our lives to get to the next line of dialogue. I don’t think anger at the designer is the emotion you want to evoke with your Personal Stories.

Beware of this advice as it has the feeling of something ANet might accuse you of exploiting for.

guffaw Ok, the bacon comment actually made me laugh out loud, for real. Magik wins the internet for the day, or being that this is GW2, scores Gold on the event.

Not true in my experience. The drop rates on fine crafting materials is just not very good, period. I don’t think it shifts based on level though. I was fishing for scales on barracuda last night, I out leveled them by 6+, but they were dropping scales about 50% of the time, I’d say. That’s a bit higher than I expect in general. Normally it seems that fine crafting drops are in the 20-30% range. It’s irritating. Often however, you can supplement your farming with cash from the vendoring the other drops you get while farming to purchase the remaining materials you need off the BLT. Also, you do get the XP, as if you’re at level with what you’re farming as a rule, so there is that to soften the blow of having to slaughter millions of grubs.

Was very bummed to discover last night after grinding out mats for my next tier of rare leather garb, that the appearance was exactly the same as the last. If your masterwork(green) and fine(blue) crafted gear changes between tiers, wouldn’t it be safe to assume that your rare(yellow) would as well? I assumed so, but it’s not. Very disappointing, Arenanet.