Guild Wars 2

Sociopolitical Diversification
Housing
Primary purposes for the housing platform

1. Creativity – The more options that the housing system offers, the more experimentation a player can pursue (i.e. more time a player will engage with this system).
2. Expression – Housing system give players a platform to show who they are as both a person and/or a character/s). I specially like the idea shared by Ronah.2869 where each character will have their own room in the house.
3. Ownership – When a player has put work into their home, they will feel a sense of ownership. Ownership serves as a root to a place, in this case GW2.
4. Collecting – This is an area that need major improvement. Minis are primarily acquired through gem-store purchases (aside from special events), which leaves dyes and crafting materials as the only collectible items from playing the game (perhaps weapon skins, when we are able to properly collect them!). I believe that housing items should be a mix between in-game rewards and gem-store purchases. With the majority of items found in-game and special items found in collectible packs (separate from black lion chest). In fact, if there were rng packs that only contained collectibles (dyes, minis, and housing), I can guarantee that would be my primary purchase each month and I wouldn’t feel ripped off like I usually do with Black Lion Chest.

My Top 3

1. Homes
2. Skin Locker
3. Dyeable Weapons (including Engineer Kits)

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

Question
4) What did I miss on this list

When a commander uses a waypoint, a popup should be displayed to commander’s squad asking if they would like to use waypoint with the commander. Minimizing a common reason commanders get suppressed in mapchat and adding value to players who join a commander’s squad.

Wallpapers are one of my favorite parts of the content previews and I love expanding my wallpaper slideshow.

Should we stop looking forward to their inclusion in the content updates?

If a player is in a commander’s squad and the commander uses a waypoint, it would be nice if a dialog box appeared to the players asking if they wish to also port with the commander.

This would be beneficial in two ways.

1. More incentive for player to join commander’s squad.
2. This will also help limit commander suppression in chat.

Regardless of how tired “some” of you are with Scarlet, there is no way that she is going to be leaving before her pre-planned story arc is set to be completed. It has already been made clear to us that there are story segments set to be released with planned content releases. Content, that more than likely has already been started. Just let her story arc play out and relax.

Also, it is not that “Scarlet did it”, the actual ongoing question is “What is Scarlet doing?”. Because really, we have no clue! So each content release we WILL get information about something Scarlet is doing. Should be no surprise whatsoever that she is involved with something in the story, she is the story!

I do agree with recent assessments about story depth per release. I hope that the next major story arc for the Living World will feature a bigger story segment with each content release. Something that I doubt is possible for this story-arc, given that it has been planned out and divided up into content releases already.

I also really like how content releases have had a little bit of overlap in terms of changes in game that we are given no information about, that then tie directly into upcoming releases.

Are these strange energy devices tapping into dragon energy? If so, how does Scarlet plan on manipulating said energy. Better yet, what will the consequences be for doing so.

I wish I had known the Twilight Arbor – Living World achievement was only a two week affair. It would be cool if there was a countdown timer in each Living World achievement set, just like daily and monthly sets.

It is not really random, it just appears that way because it is nonlinear storytelling. Where we the players, do not necessarily get all of the information as it is happening (or happened). It is overtime that we learn how everything ties together.

Tequatl ties in, we just don’t know how yet. Southsun happened because of the refuges and I think it is a safe assumption that Scarlet was the figure behind their alliance. Not sure about SAB, but there is definitely more to learn.

Some people hate not knowing, and some definitely hate having to wait so long for such small amount of story to be revealed. But I think it will work out nicely. Regardless, Anet deserves props just for trying. If they pull it off, then they are going to deserve even more props (as well as some apologies).

Maverick Hunter.8946:

shauncoates.6874:

That’s nonsense. People jump ship when the going gets tough, because that is who they are.

You can say that, but say 15% of your server leaves because of the unbalance, what about the 85% of us who just got smaller? Who are staying? Will Anet help us? So we should just sit quite while we get out numbered?

Eredon Terrace has already gone through a mass exodus, and those that stayed kept on fighting. And saying that there will be a 15% reduction is still just speculation. There are also external factors that could affect activity levels (such as GTAV).

Maverick Hunter.8946:

shauncoates.6874:

It has been happening since WvW began. Also this is not a broken idea, you and many others in this forum have been running wild with speculation. Speculation, that so far has not been backed by the data. On ET, we are doing just as well as we were before this update. IoJ (the dominant world) has not become some indestructible force and they certainly have not been able to maintain all three buffs (at least not for long).

True time will only tell, but if no one says anything are we to expect Anet to want to make things better?

“Say anything” about what? We still have no evidence to suggest that there is in fact a problem. All we know is that some people believe there is a problem.

As far as I can tell the only definite problem is rampant speculation.

Maverick Hunter.8946:

shauncoates.6874:

WvW is simulated warfare; advantages are a natural aspect. There will always be factors like migration, activity levels, moral, etc. If anyone does not like the unbalanced nature of WvW, then they really should not be playing it. Activities like crabtoss would be more appropriate, as everyone is on an equal playing field.

Yea… WvW is still a game, if people play it and it feels unfair, then yea people will complain and if nothing changes then I would assume people will go to a server that they can actually win or have a fighting chance… or… they will just stop playing. It’s just a “natural aspect.”

That is correct. There are also other people though; people that like a challenge, people that believe they can lead, people that want to build up their server from nothing, people who are not afraid to try and fail. There are many on my server who have these qualities. Which is why I was not concerned when people complained about the mass exodus from lower level servers when seasons was announced and I am certainly not concerned about an exodus due to some servers having a triple buff…some of the time.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Yep, just another attempt to force players into buying gems to transfer server. I would have thought they could have seen this coming, i mean really do they just put all the most broken ideas into a bag and pull one out for every update…

That’s nonsense. People jump ship when the going gets tough, because that is who they are. It has been happening since WvW began. Also this is not a broken idea, you and many others in this forum have been running wild with speculation. Speculation, that so far has not been backed by the data. On ET, we are doing just as well as we were before this update. IoJ (the dominant world) has not become some indestructible force and they certainly have not been able to maintain all three buffs (at least not for long).

WvW is simulated warfare; advantages are a natural aspect. There will always be factors like migration, activity levels, moral, etc. If anyone does not like the unbalanced nature of WvW, then they really should not be playing it. Activities like crabtoss would be more appropriate, as everyone is on an equal playing field.

This is an excellent update to WvW. Had lots of fun running through the ruins earlier.

Also, the people claiming that this gives an unfair advantage to servers with more WvW players, should look at their server’s income (points) evolution over on:

http://mos.millenium.org/matchups

I do not see any drastic changes to my server’s ability to earn points since this update released. Given that I am playing on Eredon Terrace and how we have been dominated by Isle of Janthir, any flaw in the new feature would be very apparent in our matchup. Fact is, we are doing just as good as we were before the update.

ArenaNet has already made it abundantly clear that they primarily look at data when making decisions. Despite what many of you are claiming, I do not think that the data is going to back you up.

Adjust your strategies and march on. Unless you are Isle of Janthir, in which case, take the rest of the week off!

Aravis.9541:

That would be a nightmare to navigate. And what would happen if a charr tried to run into an asura?

The Charr would fall backwards!

But, I just realized that this would also affect PVE. The last thing I would want is a couple of characters blocking an entrance in or out of a building or preventing me from getting close to a merchant. You are right, this would be a nightmare to navigate.

My understanding of lag in larger WvW battles, is that it is due to skill calculations on the server side. The more characters that are present, the more calculations that need to be done for every AoE ability, not to mention there would also be more abilities used.

My theory is, what if characters were unable to occupy the same physical space? It would prevent characters from stacking onto each other and force them to spread out. This would in turn reduce the amount of characters being factored in each AoE ability.

I have no real idea what is involved in preventing characters from occupying the same physical space, I am guessing some sort of object collision detection calculation (if that is even a thing). If that is the case, would it be possible to use an invisible cylinder that would engulf each player? That way the simple geometry of each character’s cylinder could be used for the object collision calculation, instead of the complex geometry of each character model.

Of course, collision calculations would have to be turned off at waypoints. Also, claiming keeps and whatnot would have to be rethought, as not everyone would be able to fit into the “claiming zone”.

I have no idea how much (if any) of an improvement this would make, or if this would create other technical issues. I just thought I should share the thought.

D I V A.6018:

Not needed whatsoever… This is something Anet should really ignore, since there are much bigger things to take care of.

Actually, it is the little things that make this game so great. These additions to the game would be important for roleplayers. Given that part of the community does not often get much love, I think they are due for some attention.

Regardless, the things in this list would only require some new animations and programming. It is not like the entire ArenaNet team would be pulled away from “bigger things” to work on this.

I would love to be able to sit in a chair; I would make a tavern my new hangout if I could.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Did the created Champion give loot boxes? I have been led to believe that they do not, so fighting them is not very lucrative.

I honestly do not remember if that one dropped anything or not.

Electro.4173:

I don’t think champions can be “created” by scrap piles. 2 of the twisted minotaur looking creatures creates a veteran, and 2 veterans creates a Twisted Nightmare (a silver-ranked one, not a vet or a champ). Pretty sure that’s where it ends.

It definitely happened as a result of merging. I realized today, that when a “living” twisted minion initiates the morphing process, it uses all scrap in a given vicinity. In this case, there were easily over 6 piles of scrap (close proximity) that were gobbled up to make the Nightmare.

Do we truly understand the mechanics of all of the invasion events?

When I was doing a Scarlet Minion portal event earlier with 1 other, we could not destroy spare parts fast enough a champion was created. About three others showed up and helped us take down the champion. Then for the subsequent spawns, we faced 2 more champions (1 each spawn). We maintained 5 people throughout.

If we had of had a larger group, a champion would not have been created through mergers and we would not have had to face a champion for the 2 spawns following.

Needless to say, it took forever to do that one portal event and the invasion as a whole failed miserably. Of course people instantly hopped on map chat and said that it must have been from too many people zerging. I never saw a zerg until our last fight before the invasion ended.

I saw a much higher rate of event successes in the first couple of days, before the “smaller is better” campaign started to sweep through the community.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

That’s the problem, her vision is contradictory. There’s no way for her to claim to have seen the “grand design” and failed to see that she’s already part of it. Therefore, it would be impossible for her to be this “new cog” unless she recreates reality and the entire Eternal Alchemy from scratch.

She never said was not a part of it, she simple did not believe that she had to play the role that she was told to play. So nothing contradictory about it.

“But I see the flaws in that design. My people don’t have to take what we’re given, or be what we were “born to be.” No people do. We can change the rules…well, I can. And I’m going to.”

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Besides, this story is not well thought off.

She claims, “So much makes sense now. The Pale Tree, the Nightmare Court, Caithe and Faolain…it’s all part of a grand design.”

Yet she believes that she’s not part of that design and can change things however she wants.

“We can change the rules…well, I can. And I’m going to.”

WHAT THE H’?!

If she’s as smart as the story claims her to be, she would have realized that her every action are perhaps part of that “grand design”; that all her actions are preset and predefined and there’s no way for her to escape that fact.

She saw how the system existed before her and decided how she would become a new cog in the system in order to change the way it worked. She is changing the “grand design” (or at least is planning to).

I am personally done doing the invasions. People’s insistence in turning this event into a mechanical process with less reward makes it feel like a chore.

When the event first started, everyone was just playing and having a good time, just zerging our hearts out. It was an awesome time, probably the best I have ever had in GW2; epic battles, awesome loot. In the first couple of days, we won about 50% of the invasions.

Since other players have started this diatribe against zerging, we have not won a single invasion that I played. Which has me seriously questioning whether or not we truly understand the mechanics of the event.

Regardless, other players have sucked the joy out of the event. If only there was a hotfix for that…

Ok, I will look into these. I definitely want to avoid getting whacked with the ban hammer though, so I may just go with Mumble.

Thanks for the info.

Esplen.3940:

You can already use Right-Ctrl + Mouse Click to link things.

Can you set it up to only use Right-Ctrl click? I looked through the keybinding options and did not see it. I specifically want to eliminate the potential to accidentally have my palm pressing the Left-Ctrl button when I go to use a potion in combat.

1. Would it be possible to change the Chat Link Keybind? For instance, so we could make it Right-Ctrl + Mouse Click.

2. If the Royal Terrace Pass lasted 4 weeks at the 300 gem price point, I would buy one ever month.

nexxe.7081:

Instead, we get temporary fluff, such as, quaggan backpacks and RNG weapon skins. I’ve also mentioned that the major reason Living Story fails, is because of the rewards. They are not worth striving for.

The torch I earned earlier today is hardly fluff. But let’s talk about the Balloon I earned; it serves no purpose….except for me to run around with and have fun. I may not play with it every day, but make no mistake, that balloon is coming out again one day. When it does, I will run around for no reason what-so-ever, other than to simply have fun.

Not to mention, rewards are only a small part of the Living World, the larger part is the experience. Which is why we see so many activities associated with each Living World release.

Definitely my favorite update so far. Absolutely love what ANet is doing! Can’t wait to see what they bring to the table in Year 2.

I have never typed an offensive word in the forum and I have been auto-uncorrected to “kitten”. I believe the words that were changed last time were “this is”

Why does the forum change words to kittens?

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

You explore the area. Suddenly you come along ruins. You look at those and think “hm, this looks like dwarfen ruins”. Now you open the dwarfen-section in your codex and press a “discover dwarfen ruins” button (your character studies the details).

I see, yes that would definitely add to the sense of exploration, as well as provide a new way to interact with the environment.

Hamfast.8719:

Sorry for the way I titled my post. I just wanted to see how long it took for someone to jump into the discussion without reading the text and scream that GW2 doesn’t need mounts.

I am glad I read the post before responding;) I couldn’t agree more though, we need to know what is going on in the floating castle. If Ellen is elected, then perhaps I can convince her to look into getting us access. She is going to owe me, given all the work I put in to help get her elected!

Circling Skies.1872:

If this were ever to be implemented I would like to see it be all random per character. That means that the locations for your “archaeological dig sites” would be in a different location for every person in the game.

I agree that this game must maintain its sense of exploration (i.e. continuously expand upon it). My original thinking on the artifacts though, was that they would need to be found at historically relevant locations. For example, artifacts related to Stone Summit Dwarves would only be found in Stone Summit Ruins.

Perhaps this would not be so much about exploring land, as it would be exploring history through text and the previously suggested history book/encyclopedia.

I like these ideas. Perhaps instead of each puzzle revealing a cutscene as I originally suggested, the puzzles can be grouped into sets. Building off of what Marcus Greythorne.6843 perhaps each set could contain a apprentice, novice, master level puzzle.

So as you both have suggested, individual puzzles could reward text based lore, ancient recipes, ect. Then, when you finish all of the puzzles in a set, you can unlock a narrated visual history related to that set.

I like the codex in that it provides an additional layer of engagement. A riddle-based scavenger hunt would be fun in itself. My only problem with having a codex, is that it takes a little away from the ability to discover “naturally”. Some of my favorite moments in the game have come when I was not expecting them. But seeing dig-spots on the ground, is not very rewarding of an experience. Perhaps some other clues could be built into the environment. I recently discovered that some locations react to text commands, perhaps when we find a clue we would then have to use a new /investigate or /enquêter command. Although, that might be too much for most players, the codex would be a much better entry into the Archaeology process.

I agree lanthalas.7695, this game needs an encyclopedia, even if we never get Archaeology.

Archaeology is an idea for a new system that would span across three distinct areas (gather, puzzle, and reward). It is meant to serve as a platform to deliver lore for less popular events in Tyrian history. When it is all said and done, the following elements would be added to the game;

• new gathering tool
• new gathering locations types
• new collections panel
• new puzzle system
• new permanent addition to all Home instances
• new stylized cutscenes
• new achievements
• new title

In order to explain the full scope of this idea, I will walk you through it as a player would go through the process.

Gathering
Players are going to need new gathering tools, a trowel and brush. Even though they are technically separate tools, they would be packaged as one tool in the equipment panel. Just like other gathering equipment, no set of tools is built equal. Some tools will only be usable on “easier” dig locations, some will have an increased chance to yield additional resources, etc.

Equipped with the proper gathering equipment, the player can now seek out a dig sites around Tyria. As any archaeologist would tell you, the best places to dig are places with historical significance (Dwarven Ruins, all of Orr, submerged Lion’s Arch, etc). When players come across said dig sites, they can activate the gathering just as they would and other gathering node. What they receive will be a bit different though.

Players will be searching for puzzle pieces from these archaeology nodes. In addition to puzzle pieces, random crafting materials can also be obtained from dig sites (bone shards, gems, metals, etc.). Given that there is no need for duplicate puzzle pieces (i.e. historical evidence), each player will only ever receive a given piece once. This will require a randomization system of a set number of pieces to be assigned to each player and dig site.

Puzzle
As players collect their puzzle pieces, they can begin putting the puzzle together. Players will be able to travel to a Home instance to find that Culture’s Representative of the Tyria Historical Society (example name). Next to the given culture’s representative, will be a workstation where players can begin putting the puzzle together. From the workstation players will see a list of the various historical accounts they have collected artifacts (puzzle pieces) for. When they select a given historical account, it will bring up the puzzle specific to it.

Players will then have to figure out where each piece goes. This includes determining the proper rotation of each piece. This puzzle system will obviously need to remember where the player leaves each piece, including the arrangement of the pieces that have not been placed (some puzzlers like to arrange their puzzle pieces according to shape and rotate them in the same orientation). After a player has collected all of the necessary puzzle pieces and arranged them properly, they will unlock the history that those artifacts collectively revealed.

• Puzzles could either be jigsaws or tiles.
• As puzzles progress in complexity, they will simply have more individual pieces.

Reward
Each completed puzzle will unlock a historical account that will be told by the Cultural Representative to the Tyria Historical Society (depending on which Home Instance a player is in). Regardless of which home instance a player is in, each puzzle will yield the same cutscene that will play as the given Cultural Representative narrates. These cutscenes and narrations will always be available from Cultural Representatives in the Home Instances.

Of course there will be achievements associated with the new system, as well as titles. However, as this system can be built upon indefinitely after its implementation, achievements and titles should be created with this understanding. They should be created to be acquired after x number of completions; e.g. 6/6 puzzles will grant an achievement and title, but after a year an additional achievement and title could be created, as there would then be 12 puzzles in total.

• This system will be similar to crafting systems, in that progression and rewards are Soulbound.

Deified.7520:

Hello,
You guys really need to work on immersing the players in the story and rewarding them for doing the story.

The Living World is not story driven content, it is activity driven content with a story wrapped around it. It has always been designed to get the player base to engage with certain activities and areas.

—In this moment in time, we converge in this spot and do these things, together. It has succeeded in every way as far as I am concerned, even if it is not everyone’s cup of tea.

If you don’t like activities and are looking for an extension of the personal story experience, then you should wait until larger content is released. Let those who enjoy the Living World for what it is, do so.

Even though the Living World is not story driven, I do believe that the story that has been wrapped around it, is going to be taking us to said larger content (which has basically been confirmed).

My belief is that at the end of the day, the Living World will look as follows:
Month to Month = Activity Driven Content
Annually-ish = Larger Content (Expansion)

If that turns out to be true, I think it would be pretty awesome that ArenaNet integrated two game mechanisms (monthly activities and content expansion) into one cohesive process.