Showing Posts Upvoted By oblivious.8074:

Simple Commander-GUI overhaul

in WvW

Posted by: McWolfy.5924

McWolfy.5924

We realy need guild tags, tags what not pop up on minimap, biger range for supplyinfo and more commands

WSR→Piken→Deso→Piken→FSP→Deso
Just the WvW
R3200+

No more WvW content added?

in WvW

Posted by: Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054

You won’t know it’s coming until it’s almost out. Which doesn’t mean it’s not being worked on.

Past history of dev attitude towards WvW tells us it’s not being worked on.

I don’t think you understand how game development works pal.

When it’s a current game which is losing player due to poor communication and lack of updates, you want to communicate and inform them of any updates which may be coming soon.

You dont just stay silent and close threads and then hope if you ever do release a major update that those players who have left will come flooding back.
Half of those who have left, wont come back as they have moved on, of the half who do come back, half of those wont like the updates and go back to other games; so that means the game loses up to 75% of those players.

As said, anet should have listen to us and kept us updated, and themselves updated with our replies. They havent and the game has gone downhill.
We players can only voice our opinion here, but if the devs refuse to check here regularly, our opinions will continue to go unheard.

The WvW Forum Poster Formerly Known As Omaris Mortuus Est

Give Bonuses to Gold/Silver League Servers

in WvW

Posted by: Roe.3679

Roe.3679

Yes, let’s push people into the top servers even more. This is exactly what is needed. /sarcasm

Transfers a few weeks before tournament?

in WvW

Posted by: grifflyman.8102

grifflyman.8102

So who’s bright idea was it to offer transfers a few weeks before the tournament? You’ve basically thrown all the rank information gained during the off season out the window and because of this some of the matches are incredibly unbalanced.

If you want to keep a WvW community you need to gain some credibility, not toss it out the door.

Issue: Runes/Sigils and Non-Salvageable Gear

in Black Lion Trading Co

Posted by: Ashadow.6874

Ashadow.6874

3 months and still no response, on purposefully removing the only way to transfer Runes to new gear, and then adding Upgrade Extractors at 5x the cost — in $$ (real money) — of Transmutation Crystals.

Original real cost to move Runes/Sigils in WvW/Karma/Order armor using gem store items (only current possible way):

  1. Prepatch (Original method): 50 Gems, Transmution Crystal ($0.62 cents)
  2. Postpatch (New only method -> 4/15): 250 Gems, Extractor ($3.12 dollars)

-

List of currently un-salvage gear that can cause expensive Runes/Sigils to become trapped, at the bottom of this post.

Hopefully this list at the bottom helps players understand the risk and sways them from buying Karma/WvW/Order armors to socket Runes/Sigils in until something is done about this issue.

-

[Edited to update and also to input list of un-salvage gear that can trap Runes/Sigils in them. And actual cost. Changed some of the original post’s language to be more constructive. ]

Post updated a bit. To better raise awareness of true issue.

Can something be done about this please? You removed the ability for us to use Transmuation Stones to move Sigils/Runes to new pieces of gear.

-

Example #1:

  1. Player decides to buy a set of Karma Armor/WvW Armor.
  2. Player then decides to socket said Karma Armor/WvW Armor with 6 Runes of Strength (75.6g -> 12.6g each)
  3. Player decides to make Ascended Armor and socket the Runes of Strength into it.
  4. Player tries to Salvage Karma/WvW armor.
  5. Player CANNOT Salvage Karma/WvW armor and is now out 75.6g.
  • See what happened when Transmutation Stones were removed entirely?
  • Only solution now: 250 gems Upgrade Extractor. (6x 250 gems -> 1500 gems)
  • Former solution: 50 gems Transmutation Crystal. (6x 50 gems -> 300 gems)
  • Player throws away 10g sigil.

Example #2:

  1. Player uses WvW Weapons:
  2. Player adds 10g+ Sigil to WvW Weapon.
  3. Player then crafts Ascended Weapon (or new WvW Weapon/Stat Combo)
  4. Player decides he wants to move his expensive Sigil.
  5. Player cannot salvage WvW Weapon due to huge oversight of removing Transmutation Stones. And is out 10g. (When it was entirely possible to do this before the patch.)
  • Guess what the only current option is? You guessed it again.
  • Only solution now: 250 gems Upgrade Extractor.
  • Former solution: 50 gems Transmutation Crystal.
  • Player throws away 10g sigil.

-

The option to do so existed before the patch. We are not asking for something new. But for something to not be taken away from us.

It does exists now (upgrade Extractor) but at 5x the original cost. (50 gems Transmute Stone -> 250 gems Extractor.)

I want to believe this wasn’t intentional. And that something will be changed soon. (Either a price lower, a new Gem store item, or Salvagable Karma/WvW/Order gear.)

-
-
-

Level 80 – WvW/Karma/Order armor salvaging isn’t profitable.

Maximum value of ecto profit if salvaged: (Full set of WvW/Karma/Order armor — using current value, will fluctuate)
thus the reason why it is pointless that they cannot be salvaged

  • Assuming Ecto salvage rate of: 1.2 ectos per level 80 Exotic
  • Current TP value of 38s
  • Salvaging set of 80 WvW/Karma/Order: 2g 73s 60c (before 15% TP tax)

Cost of level 80 Armors to purchase:

  1. Karma Gear: (80, Exotic) 242,000 Karma per set (42,000 per piece)
  2. WvW (badges) Gear: (80, Exotic) 5g 44s – 950 Badges of Honor
  3. Vigil armor: 8g 88s per set
  4. Whispers armor: 8g 88s per set
  5. Priory armor: 8g 88s per set

Extreme level 80 Karma Armor salvage example:

  • Even with Karma gear salvaged for Ectos. My massive 4.7million Karma
  • 4.7million Karma -> Level 80 Temple Gear -> 30g-49g (around this from salvaging assuming 1.2 or less Ectos per piece of gear)
  • Same 4.7million Karma -> Orrian Jewelry Boxes – 75g-100g+ (My 4.7million Karma would net me at least 75-100g.)

-

List of currently un-salvage gear that can cause expensive Runes/Sigils to become trapped:
posted again here near bottom if someone is looking for just this

  1. Karma Gear: (80, Exotic) 242,000 Karma per set (42,000 per piece)
  2. WvW (badges) Gear: (80, Exotic) 5g 44s – 950 Badges of Honor
  3. Vigil armor: 8g 88s per set
  4. Whispers armor: 8g 88s per set
  5. Priory armor: 8g 88s per set

-
-

Original real cost to move Runes/Sigils in WvW/Karma/Order armor using gem store items (only current possible way):

  1. Prepatch (Original method): 50 Gems, Transmution Crystal ($0.62 cents)
  2. Postpatch (New only method -> 4/15): 250 Gems, Extractor ($3.12 dollars)
#SAB 2014 plx

#OccupySAB2014

(edited by Ashadow.6874)

Rocket boots movement bug

in Engineer

Posted by: ellesee.8297

ellesee.8297

yes this happens to me occasionally. i filled out a bug report but anet’s balance once every 3 months philosophy won’t bring my hopes up for a fix anytime soon.

#1 Engi NA and world first rank 80!
#1 Frandliest person NA!
http://www.twitch.tv/Livskis

Megaserver

in WvW

Posted by: style.6173

style.6173

PvP-wise, EoTM is an epic failure. I predict Anet will continues pushing in that direction anyway for WvW.

We need to stop referring to EotM as a WvW map. It is a PvE karma train map where you can kill players.

More NPC to fight

in WvW

Posted by: Neftex.7594

Neftex.7594

No thanks, keep PvE out of WvW please

WvW Glossary (Tongue firmly in cheek)

in WvW

Posted by: Friday.9078

Friday.9078

Scout reports : When you round a corner and see an enemy zerg blobbing it’s merry way along, shout out “enemies here”.

Heads-up Shouts : When you see players with red words above their heads, call out in map chat “INC”.

Attack reports : When you are in a tower/keep and the enemy zerg is heading for the door shout in map chat “GATE!111!!”, and when asked which tower/keep and which gate shout out “TOP GATE!!11”.

Leia Friday
[OURS] [quaK] [Dawn]
Gandara

(edited by Friday.9078)

WvW Glossary (Tongue firmly in cheek)

in WvW

Posted by: Friday.9078

Friday.9078

PUSH : a term the Commander will use to signal a headlong rush into the enemy zerg. You should stand dead still and wonder who is having a baby there on the battlefiled, then melt as their front-line runs over you.
BANNER : the dying shriek of the Commander when only two people pushed with him.

Leia Friday
[OURS] [quaK] [Dawn]
Gandara

[EU] Server transfers and overview

in WvW

Posted by: DamnThoseNames.8791

DamnThoseNames.8791

The majority of The Never Ending [NE] have moved from Ruins of Surmia and we’re rebuilding now on Gandara. A handful of [NE] are still on RoS under new leadership.

Hope u didn’t bring many ppl to gandara….. we are so full that anet reserved a server just for us -_-.
Thank you for the heads up…. ohw wait…

Periflor – Mesmer
Cilag – Gaurdian
[RAIN] Wolfs Rain

Why Anet? Superior Seige Forge Crafting x1

in WvW

Posted by: Jizmak.1489

Jizmak.1489

Why can I not put in a stack of 250 wood, 250 ore, 100 reg, 50 books, and get 50 superior???

We use over 300 superior rams a week, and countless other seige… With all the vast technoloigy at your finger tips, and you can’t make this simple change for WvW’s?

Cheers

Battle Commander – [JINX]

Duck in loading screen

in WvW

Posted by: Zulika Mi Nam.1092

Zulika Mi Nam.1092

CU is stalking.

[pvp] love d/d and hate d/p

in Thief

Posted by: Dakarius.3284

Dakarius.3284

And yet, d/p is so much better. d/p is a complete weapon set, each and every skill it has is useful. It has stealth, on demand, copious amounts of blind, it even has an interrupt.

d/d on the other hand is broken in comparison. Its third ability is completely useless to power builds. It doesn’t even function well as an evade due to the pathetic .25s evade on a skill that takes roughly a second to go through.

Its #4 is terrible, it used to be fairly decent dealing a fair amount of damage with a decent cripple, but now it’s hardly worth the initiative given the cripple lasts all of 3 seconds, it’s slow as hell, and it does barely any damage. Then there’s the #5 it’s not a bad ability, but it is so incredibly telegraphed that decent players should almost never get hit by it. Not to mention that in spvp in only deals the damage of a HS at above 50% health.

ArenaNet; I want my favorite set to feel complete. I want it to be competitive. As it is d/p is better than it in pretty much every situation. Make it so all 5 abilities are useful and we actually have to manage our initiative around what we want to use at a given time instead of the only viable moves being 5 and 1 with an occasional 2 thrown in for good measure.

HTML module for wvwvw scores in your webpage

in API Development

Posted by: smiley.1438

smiley.1438

the great thing about his stuff was that you can add it to a HTML block in guild sites/server pages. A little widget with the current matchup score.

you can’t really do any php with a guild host layout.

That wouldn’t be much of the problem i think – lets see what i can do for you

Collaborative Development: Edge of the Mists

in CDI

Posted by: Bertrand.3057

Bertrand.3057

+1 to Matipzieu’s statement on enduring, inclusive communities. It enriches the game experience so much more to have familiar faces, guild, commanders when you enter WvW.

My experience is very different from Matipzieu’s, I play on a mid-tier EU server and started out as an uplevel looking for map completion and trying to do jumping puzzles. I followed blue tags, represented a tiny guild of friends from outside the game, auto-attacked doors and didn’t have VOIP software installed. Thanks to seeing the same friendly people on my server I took more of an interest in WvW and I’ve now been a leader of a WvW guild for a year as well as a commander and community leader for my server.

Server drain has been pointed to time and time again on these servers as something that needs to be addressed for the long-term health of WvW. Without a functioning WvW community it is harder to get new players involved in the game mode and there is little incentive for existing WvW players to stay.

Can alliances fix the issue? I doubt it, the issue is a downward spiral that will keep feeding back on itself, there is nothing to keep that grouping of servers from dropping to the bottom of the ladder, or even if they do win their matches, there is nothing to keep that success going after the alliance is dissolved. Unless you can encourage people to move to and stay on those servers I think that drain will persist.

Much of the problem is that almost every aspect of this game mode encourages players to transfer up the ladder rather than down it. Material rewards in this game are really set against, well, trying to hold together a community that might be falling apart already. With the introduction of EotM, queues are no longer a strong incentive to move down.

I think the Season 1 rewards were appropriate, if inappropriately advertised, but it seems to me that the improved rewards hinted at for the upcoming “tournament” will just encourage players to stack servers even more. It’s unfortunate that the ambiguous communication in advance of Season 1 led to a short-sighted community outcry and now this knee-jerk response which will simply undermine efforts to balance the servers.

Talleyrand, Captain and Commander of the Bloody Pirates
Asura on patrol in defense of Gandara and Bessie!
Administrator of http://thisisgandara.com

(edited by Bertrand.3057)

Collaborative Development: Edge of the Mists

in CDI

Posted by: Yoh.8469

Yoh.8469

Proposal Overview
Redesign WvW’s Terrain to take into account more verticality, give it more shape, with fewer direct open paths, more choke points, ledges and high ground.
Also rework structures to have more then simply to open areas separated by walls, but have a series of smaller rooms with their own doors.
Add area effect buffs/debuffs to certain areas.

Goal of Proposal
To make death and travel more punishing and require more planning.
To open up new paths for defense and attack by small, well organized forces vs large unorganized zergs.
Split up both attacking and defending forces in buildings, so that you have a series of smaller engagement rather then single large battles where numbers are the prime dictator of.
Raise the quality of battles as to require a greater level of tactics and strategy, rather then simply force in numbers.

Proposal Functionality
The current WvW terrain is very wide and very flat, and traveling between two points is often times a straight line.
By adding for terrain features, such as chasms and fissures, twisting cliff lines and hills, and other obstacles such as swamps that reduce movement speed of anyone in it, of icy caverns that have falling debris like the Tribulation Caverns jumping puzzle.
Even adding more pseudo jumping puzzle like elements to reach high ground.
Other effects could be chilling winds in the frozen wastes that deal damage over time if you stay in the open, forcing you to seek shelter. Underground caves with dark rooms and traps. Or fog surrounding a lake that obscures vision. Esp if these effects come and go, or are dependent on weather.
It would make combat around such effects more dynamic and unpredictable at times.

This would have the effect making the travel between points require some level of planning, take more time to traverse, allow more well organised smaller forces a means to fight back against larger zergs by utilizing the terrain, and subsequent deaths become more punishing. (as currently death isn’t a punishment since you can get back any location in a matter of minutes)

And buildings much of the same approach should be taken. Instead of two large rooms separated by walls, how about outer wall followed by a series of smaller rooms that each have their own mechanic or buff within the building.
Such as an Armory that buffs the NPC’s, or Siege Workshop the improves siege, a Barracks that buffs players, Servants Quarters that auto-repair walls and doors (without the need of supply) within the building, etc.
Each with their own door, that requires some effort to knock down.

Perhaps in keeps you could also have a couple of Scout Towers that have high ground advantage and are a good place for siege. If invaders were to ignore these rooms and go straight for the Lords Room, they might find they would have a very difficult time doing so.
So splitting up a coordinating is the key to victory, in both defense and offense.

In addition they could utilize more verticality and narrow choke points.
All to make combat around such terrain and structures more drawn out, in smaller numbers, and require more tactics and strategy, which in turn should make it a more engaging affair for everyone involved.

Associated Risks
Some terrain could be exploited for cheesy or harassment gameplay, esp if there are not a lot of options to get to a location. Shouldn’t be too much of a problem so long as they are always multiple routes to your destination.
Death could be seen as too punishing to some.

Collaborative Development: Edge of the Mists

in CDI

Posted by: Matipzieu KyA.9613

Matipzieu KyA.9613

(continued from above)

SUMMARY: I am deeply concerned about the prospect of removing the “World” from World v. World not because of an irrational attachment to that particular model, but because the presence of an enduring, inclusive community is a crucial element of WvW, and I can’t envision a suitable alternative to the World model. Alliances come close, but I believe they would be better suited as an addition to worlds, rather than a replacement for them. I am concerned that moving towards an “EotM” model will devastate and drive off many players, like us, who derive the majority of our interest in the game from being a part of a community.

To analogize: what would the Super Bowl be if it was just Red versus Blue? That’s what WvW would be like without Worlds. Trying to take the enduring, inclusive communities out of WvW is like trying to do modern sports… without teams.

2: Comments on Revitalizing Stonemist

There are a number of really interesting ideas about how to revitalize Stonemist that are floating around. These are fascinating, and I’d be really interested to see how they pan out. However, before I dive in and help out (honestly, as a GM that’s been WvW active since long before Blackgate was anywhere near an interesting server, haha, this sounds like it could be a lot of fun!) I do want to toss out one quick concern:

Whatever changes go through, new players who still need the Stonemist Vista and Stonemist Point of Interest HAVE to have a way to still reasonably be able to get them on low-pop servers. If there is ever a WvW season/tournament achievement for a certain number of Stonemist captures again, this becomes an even more salient point! Because we often play at really odd off-hours (I suspect many of the top commanders on our server wouldn’t even recognize us) two of my guildmates were almost unable to get credit for capturing Stonemist enough times to get the WvW achievement, and we were hardly slouching off during the season. Eventually we had to concoct a hair-brained scheme to get one last SM capture in involving a large number of Omegas, a handful of mesmers, and a few dozen lucky rabbits’ feet. While epic, I’m concerned that whatever change is made to SM has got to make sure new players can get their Map Completion—be it for their Gift of Exploration/Legendary, the principle of Map Complete, and achievements—and the best way to accomplish this might be to make it easier to access both the Vista and PoI if SM becomes harder to capture. For example, expand the radius of the SM PoI to include anyone that manages to make it inside the courtyard (past the first wall), and place the vista on a nearby hill outside of SM (leaving the existing vista as a legacy, of course, since it’s an awesome view, but not one that counts). Or reduce the number of vistas necessary for map completion on EB by one.

With that preliminary concern for new players out of the way, the idea of breaking Stonemist up into several different capturable objectives is really interesting.

An alternative to towers/citadels: stages

Just to toss this one out: an aesthetically and possibly much easier to code alternative to adding a series of 2, 3, or 4 towers inside SM (which would entail artwork and engineering redesign) might be to break SM up into a series of separately capturable stages. For example: SM right now is worth 35 points/tick, central lord pad in the bottom.

An alternative might be to break SM into three objectives:
- SM Courtyard (outer ring) (breach the first wall and occupy the ring) – worth 10 points, with a reduced re-capture timer (say, 2 minutes instead of the usual 4).
- Lower SM (breach first wall, breach inner, capture current lord pad) – worth 10 points with a 4-minute timer.
- Upper SM (breach first wall, breach inner, storm up from the lord pad and fight through a third, single door to take a lord, say, somewhere in the upper area of SM.

Personally, I could almost see the chat: “Inc outer SM, retreat to lower” – “Just took lower SM, get to upper” – etc.

The key to this system would be to devise a way to capture a large, awkwardly sized objective like the outer ring. I would suggest drawing a large “O”, including the entire courtyard. Have three roaming “Elite Stone Sentries”—equivalent to standard tower lords—that respawn every 3 minutes. Once all three are dead, a progress bar emerges. Here, instead of driving every single player from such a huge area (I’m thinking virtually the entire area consisting of the ground inside SM, from inner wall to the inside of the outer wall) allow the attacking realm to begin slowly progressing the bar as soon as they have either 400% or 500% (4:1, 5:1) of the current enemy players in the ring.

(post to be continued)

Matixvieu (et al) | Blackgate – WvW, PvE
GM of [KyA] Established 2002

Collaborative Development: Edge of the Mists

in CDI

Posted by: Matipzieu KyA.9613

Matipzieu KyA.9613

(continued from above)

(E) Many players have suggested that game-wide communities can be established. But how much community is there on sPvP or EoTM? This is one of my biggest concerns about removing the “world” from World v. World. We have a simple test case: in sPvP, you have short-duration set matches composed of players that will overwhelmingly never see each other again. This allows players to get into the game and play it very quickly and easy—great! But it’s important to let people who like to eat pizza to order pizza at the restaurant, and people who like steak dinners to order steak dinners. sPvP is a market niche. It’s great for players who are killing-oriented, enjoy fast-paced very small-group combat. Typically strategic play like you see in WvW is minimal. (Disclosure: I have played sPvP since release. To illustrate the point: sPvP is what I do when I’m solo and want to go “shoot some hoops”, blow off some steam, or shake up my daily laurel routine. WvW is what I do when I’m dead serious about kicking some kitten at a strategic level out with my guild. They are two totally different games, like Halo and Starcraft.)

(F) Game environments that are not anchored by community quickly stagnate and turn into cesspools. This is a blight, and leads to a blighted experience that drives away more serious and mature customers. Furthermore, the customers driven away are those that are more likely to be (A) loyal and (B) able and willing to pay more at the gem store to support the game.[/u] Suffice to say the transition from DAoC to WoW was a very kittene for my guild when DAoC’s developers decided to put a quiver of arrows through their golden hen. The culture in WoW, which has been the subject of more than a few dissertations at high-level universities, was for a very long time ranked highly among internet cesspools. The overwhelming majority of incentives were zero-sum and oriented strictly towards personal gain. Many incentives were such that the only way to personally advance was to do harm to others (guild hop upon gear acquisition in raiding). The opportunities to create, support, or contribute to a larger community were virtually nonexistent. Many other games that have followed have encountered similar problems. WoW managed to attract tremendous subscriber bases in spite of its player community, not because of or alongside it.

One of the things that attracted my guild so strongly to GW2 as soon as we started watching Colin’s videos back in early 2012 was because not only of the incredible community of old GW1 players that were coming over, but because the game world created incentives for players to cooperate and help each other out, with WvW as the epitome of those incentives. It was an incredibly refreshing change of pace, and the closest we’ve ever come to the old DAoC glory days. GW2 has the staying power and fundamentals to prove that the genre of community-oriented MMOs can compete with the big boys and deliver a far more fulfilling community experience. I would hate to see a major part of that brand, WvW, harmed. I think a great many players share that sentiment.

(G) Many customers, like myself and every single one of my guildmates, both enjoy WvW and continue to play GW2 for two things: epic dragon fights and something larger than ourselves. Since we’re currently fresh out of dragons, and given the current, er, direction of the so-called Living Story, there is not a single member of my guild that expects to see any more of the content we actually keep hoping for in the next year, if not two. The only thing keeping us actively playing and purchasing from the Gem Store today is the feeling that we are contributing to our home server. We do not like to play anonymously. We like having a home. We like defending it. We like taking things and pulling off impossible feats for the sake of it. Our playstyle often has us blowing enormous amounts of guild catapults, which are expensive to manufacture (and once we even bought gems to replenish our stockpile of them off the TP in the middle of a fierce match during S1 when things got heated up). There is no way we would ever consider spending real life money on gems for an anonymous match that didn’t matter, and we definitely wouldn’t go bragging to old DAoC comrades about how amazing GW2 was if there was no sense of community that we could belong to and contribute to. Absolutely no way. I doubt we would continue playing for more than maybe a month if community was abolished.

(post to be continued)

Matixvieu (et al) | Blackgate – WvW, PvE
GM of [KyA] Established 2002

Collaborative Development: Edge of the Mists

in CDI

Posted by: Matipzieu KyA.9613

Matipzieu KyA.9613

(continued from above)

When you go out to WvW, you’re a valuable resource. Every server (even BG) needs every incremental player we can get in order to be successful out there. That scarcity and the player owning the supply—like a really nice job market—enhances both the value and play experience of the player. Inclusiveness is a key ingredient to creating a positive play experience. This is the part of the recipe that made DAoC so great. I remember way, way back in the classic days when Level 50s (max level in DAoC in 2001-2004 glory days) would run around lowbie zones welcoming new players to the game—I’m not kidding, by the way, even though this probably sounds insane in the MMORPG world post-WoW—and handing out gold and the occasionally semi-rare but pretty sweet looking piece of armor or weapon because they hoped that level 1 running around in ragged cloth and getting killed by a water beetle because they were having a hard time figuring out which key to punch to start swinging would grow up to be one more decked 50 out on the field when it counted.

The best part is that that inclusion is automatic: it just happens. You can’t not be included and benefit from inclusion, by game design. With an alliance system, there are additional barriers erected to inclusion. And if that doesn’t sound like much, it’s the difference between the LFG tool and map chat in Lion’s Arch. Yes, the determined and more socially-minded players will always have a home. But what about the people that play to get away from having to deal with all of that in real life, or who don’t have the time or emotional bandwidth to deal with yet more social situations like that? It’s really important to keep an eye on the new player experience when contemplating massive game design changes like this, not just on the jaded old vets who’ve been here for a while, because having the right mixture of old-timers and infusions of new players is the key to getting to celebrate the game’s ten-year anniversary.

COMMUNITY: This goes without saying. There needs to be a community for WvW to continue to be the experience that appeals to the players it does. Without community, WvW is just expensive, long-match PvP that happens in your PvE armor with a few doors and stuff in the way. With community, WvW is an explosive, heart-pumping, adrenaline-running and nail-bitingly epic experience. When S1 came down to the death match between JQ and BG and JQ was pulling ahead for the first three days of that week, I can’t remember seeing the players come together and fight side by side since 2002. WvW is intrinsically linked to community. For some, yes, the rewards and the EoTM experience are enough, granted. I’m actually very glad that the folks that love that kind of arms-length play have found a happy home. But for many of us, you can’t take the “World” from World v. World.

To put it simply: you’re just not going to get a video like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdecWAAJcMQ with the title “Blue Worlds Win Season 4.” Not going to happen. Personally I’d rather try to figure out ways to deliver this kind of experience to T2 and T3 and T4 servers, rather than reduce everything to generic colors that you can pick at will.

© Right now, without the ability to form alliances, Worlds and Servers are the only vehicle through which that enduring, inclusive community exists in GW2. Shifting the focus to Guilds and Alliances, as some posters have suggested, is probably the next best bet.

(D) Even if an Alliance system were substituted, this would be an enduring, but not necessarily inclusive community. I’ve already described my concerns with the inclusiveness versus inherent exclusiveness issue above, but I could in all seriousness see using guilds as a next-best platform. It would be a little bit like reducing the international system from relations between nations to a global patchwork of city-states (where some will be huge and powerful, your Londons, Singapores, New York Cities, and some will be tiny little Fresno, CA’s) but with alliances, it might be possible. I think a better solution would be to continue using worlds and building in an alliance system (with “alliance chat” and possibly some other in-game features) to cement, help create, sustain, support, and energize world communities. The more opportunities players have to put down roots, the more fun social players have, the more fellow kitten -kickers killer-style players have beside them in WvW, and the longer everyone plays, has a good time (and buys gems).

(post to be continued)

Matixvieu (et al) | Blackgate – WvW, PvE
GM of [KyA] Established 2002

Collaborative Development: Edge of the Mists

in CDI

Posted by: Matipzieu KyA.9613

Matipzieu KyA.9613

Hi Devon, T1 GM of a PvX (WvW active) guild here.
Firstoff, thanks for posting and hosting this CDI thread. It’s very good to see more folks from ArenaNet with their sleeves rolled up down chatting amongst the masses, which reminds me very much of the old “Management By Walking Around” – there’s a lot of good information out here, and I’m glad to see ArenaNet out speaking with their community. This kind of dialogue is really valuable for both the health of the game, the community, and for improving and innovating better game design.
This is a great thread, but I’d like to both offer a series of suggestions and a few very strong words of caution with the best explanations I can muster in the midst of a busy work week. Apologies if I’ve got a few typos, I’ve probably had as much sleep as many of the folks on ANet’s staff…
I also wanted to talk this thread over with my guildmates before posting, to make sure that when I posted I was also speaking for them as best I could. When you’ve been the GM of the same folks for over a decade, I guess it’s a hard habit to break.
I’d like to address two main topics that I’ve seen here. First, the issue of whether worlds should be abolished (I have some very serious concerns about this proposal) and secondly, possible changes to Stonemist (which, if executed correctly, could be very interesting).

1: There Must Be Some Form of Enduring, Inclusive Community: Servers/Worlds Are It Right Now

There have been innumerable posts from folks concerned about removing world identity and the communities that are created and fostered on servers, and very serious worries that this would irreparably harm if not destroy the WvW feeling, sense of pride and accomplishment, and possibly even WvW as a brand. I share these concerns and am somewhat alarmed that the notion of abolishing servers in favor of anonymous, randomized masses like EoTM. To me, that’s no longer WvW, that’s sPvP.

My guild and I are old-time DAoC vets. We were there in Classic and were really active during the golden days of SI and were very active both as raid leaders and in our server community during the ToA years. We have seen the best and the worst. What finally drove us out of DAoC—and away from RvR/WvW until GW2’s release a long, terrible decade later—was when DAoC’s developers began systematically damaging the RvR/WvW play experience against the advice of countless members of the community and their internals testers (which included myself every one of my officers). I am deeply concerned that a movement to remove the enduring, inclusive community aspect of WvW, which today is accomplished through Worlds/Servers, could begin a “spiral-down” process like that which finally killed off DAoC. However, rather than wave my arms and caution that the sky is falling, I’d like to spend a few minutes walking through the basis of my concern.

(A) To even matter, much less feel epic the way WvW should, there has to be a point to it that’s greater than personal gain. This should sound like a very familiar, comment sentiment across time and many, many games. The reason my guildmates and I were willing to go all out during Season 1 on our server, and for months before then, was because we felt like we were able to contribute to something bigger than ourselves and our loot bags. That sense of being a part of something bigger is a huge component of what leads us to play WvW/RvR style games, and why we’ve been dedicated to GW2 for as long as we have (since Beta 2). There’s only so much farming or sPvP you can take, as a guild of players who think and feel the way we do. While it’s fun to run dungeons, that feeling of contribution under uncertain circumstances is the best ward against boredom and staleness we’ve been able to discover. Without that feeling of something bigger, the value of WvW for players like us would be greatly diminished.
(B) This something greater is provided by enduring, inclusive community. I’d like to try to delve into just what that elusive ”thing” is that many posters have attempted to touch on when it comes to why worlds matter so much for WvW, whereas others have argued against them. To clear up the confusion, the best explanation I can offer is this:

It’s not about worlds, per se, it’s about an enduring, inclusive community. I’ve picked these three words very carefully to try to hone in and distill the meaning that I’ve been reading on these boards and elsewhere for a long time, and seen reflected on this thread.
(post to be continued)

Matixvieu (et al) | Blackgate – WvW, PvE
GM of [KyA] Established 2002

Collaborative Development: Edge of the Mists

in CDI

Posted by: Matipzieu KyA.9613

Matipzieu KyA.9613

(continued from above)

ENDURING: The key ingredient of building relationships, reputations, and the feeling of walking into a familiar place (think “Cheers” or “Friends”, but with a healthy dose of “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Lord of the Rings”—that’s the sweet spot) as opposed to something awkward, faceless, and random. Trying to extract a sense of community from sPvP (without setting up a special private server ahead of time, which is a totally separate issue) is, well, like trying to have a meaningful heart-to-heart with a stranger on a social networking site. It… just doesn’t work. There is no substitute for creating that sort of emotional, familiar connection with a place and a community than having a place for that community to exist.

Rather than running a “race to the bottom” and equalizing the community experience across all servers by removing the community experience, an integral ingredient of what defines WvW, altogether the focus should be on trying to find ways to create, foster, and enable that community on lower-pop and other servers where the play experience is currently broken.

It’s difficult to imagine “World versus World” without the World part, but the underlying issue is that there needs to be a way for players to repeatedly interact with the same players (though, preferably, not always the same enemies) again and again. You can get comfortable, recognize names, and (for many players, most importantly) be recognized on a server only if you have the chance to get to know the community out there, and the community has a chance to get to know you.

With a randomized, “color-only”, there is no ENDURING component to the play experience. Interactions are arms-length at best. It’s incredibly easy to go from pleasant to hostile because you’ll probably never see the other people again.

A second issue with the “enduring” component is the importance of having an enduring community that exists outside of WvW as well. On Blackgate, one of the reasons I honestly think we were able to do as well as we did is because we had an inclusive, welcoming PvE culture in the open world on our server during release. I think a lot of that culture transferred into creating the culture and setting the stage in WvW. Yes, there were other factors, and as a GM of a guild that was on BG at head start when our rank looked pretty terrible, I’ve got a pretty good idea of what they are, but that inclusiveness moving out into WvW helped not only give us coverage, but create a fun place where people want to play. Personally, if Blackgate fell to T6 next month, I know every single member of my guild would still be here for that community.

This is the crux of my concern about removing “worlds” and switching to a purely “pick a color” scheme. When you join EoTM, you’re a color. It’s predefined for you, and it matters just about as much as joining a particular side (red or blue, who cares?) in sPvP. The color has no meaning except as a temporary identifier of which side you are, and which side they are.

INCLUSIVE: One of the ideas that’s gotten traction on this thread is to replace “worlds” with voluntary “alliances.” Let’s assume for the moment that this is actually feasible, and that every guild serious about winning S2, S3, or S9 for that matter wouldn’t all just try to band together and that there was a way to solve the “alliance hopping” problem in an equitable, reasonable, sane way. Okay. The next problem is that switching to this model of “World” association is that it is by definition exclusive, not inclusive.

With Worlds, you have to join one to play. It’s a mechanical process with no pressure at all. Hey, this server has a cool name (that’s how our guild picked it back around Head Start), let’s play there! Or, far more often, hey, my friends/guild/significant other plays on X, so I’m going to go play there too! No pressure, and voila, you’ve got a home.

(post to be continued)

Matixvieu (et al) | Blackgate – WvW, PvE
GM of [KyA] Established 2002

Zerg solution "Crowded" debuff

in WvW

Posted by: King Amadaeus.8619

King Amadaeus.8619

While playing last night I noticed the Outnumbered buff come up and it sent me into a spiral of thought about logical fighting scenarios. If you had 40 people in a small area all trying to swing swords wouldn’t it be much more difficult than a smaller group?

What if Anet added a “Crowded” debuff to WvW? The formula could be something like this:

if players within x radius is => y then Crowded Debuff

I won’t suggest what the debuff should actually be or what the number of players should be either but the debuff would make a lot of sense. The game is taking a turn towards this type of system anyways with the bloodlust and outnumbered buffs. I think this Crowded debuff fits right in with them in terms of theme and goal. Also, Anet could not add it to Edge of the Mists so if people want to GvG or run in mass groups unhindered they still can. Thoughts?

This idea has came up in the past, a few of us on TS were speaking about it last night although we went farther and suggested buffing/boosting the individual a % depending on the number of friendlies around them. (IE: the fewer friendlies the more of a stat boost/buff)

However, when this has came up in the past (conversations about penalizing zerging) ANET devs (from what I remember anyway) stated they would never be in favor of penalizing players for essentially blobbing together.

They would probably be more likely (out of the 2 scenarios) to buff under-manned teams or individuals rather than de-buff a large group. But in reality they will likely do neither.

The biggest problem with this game right now is that (on average) numbers are far better rewarded than skill, and there is a point where numbers are able to overcome skill, and that point right now is far too low on the scale of things.

Mag Server Leader

(edited by King Amadaeus.8619)

PvD has to go

in WvW

Posted by: Memphisjz.1405

Memphisjz.1405

EDIT: Please read my replies on this thread as well before posting.

ArenaNet, i love you guys for making this awesome game.

However, can you please explain me how such a big group of smart developers never realized that it makes absolutely no sense that players can damage a gate without bothering to build a ram (or other siege). If defenders bothered to siege up a tower, they should be able to hold it if they outsmarted the attackers and killed their rams and/or cata/treb.

Not only is defending freaking impossible (Blobs just melt gates). It is simply completely unacceptable that the hard work of a dedicated group of people to escort dolyaks to a keep to finally have a WP can all be undone by a single troll who’s sole purpose in WvW is to tag the enemy keep. Seriously, our EB waypoint has been contested the whole week as some dude had nothing better to do than tag it all day long.

PS revise dolyaks as well, escorting them is useless since a thief can just stealth up to them and 3 hit them before you can even kill him. Increase Dolyak’s health and toughness and give them perma regeneration. Even when escorting with 3 people it is still impossible to keep a dolyak alive.

TL;DR: Stop the mindless karma train, promote tactical gameplay by getting rid of PvD

Hylo Hammerswing [AoA]
Treb Master of the Shiverpeaks

(edited by Memphisjz.1405)