Guild Wars 2

I’m much more a fan of Legendary Dyes than Legendary Armor.

I want more activities and adventures to do with my guild. Maybe instanced dungeons with special bosses at the end that reward you with a skill… or an update to an existing skill.

Like, maybe there’s a Mesmer boss and when you defeat it, your Feedback dome gets an added electrical effect or something?

Headline: Angry Mob Demands Target of Protest “Be Reasonable and Come Join Us”

If you want more dev interaction on these forums, it’ll take months of you guys exercising self-control and not attacking them or their work.

These forums haven’t been respectful enough to earn further dev interaction. If I worked for ArenaNet, I’d NEVER come here.

And if you’re so entitled as to think they “owe” us that interaction, there’s not really anything I can say. You’re wrong. Your $60 bought you a game, not the ability to force people to listen to you yell about how much you hate them and the work they’ve done.

It’s rather disappointing that the most commonly proposed solution to “there aren’t enough people on some servers” is “limit the number of players who can play the game mode.”

Getting butter from a Heavy Moldy Bag is pretty much the worst thing for immersion ever.

Pie, anyone?

Yes, change it to the male variant.

I don’t mind gem store armor. I’d actually like to buy some. I even like the concept/theme of the Zodiac armor.

But really with the boobs?

Look, it’s okay to have criticisms about the game. I have my own. Trust me, people on my guild’s Teamspeak channel are often privy to some angry ranting about this game.

That said, a lot of the good feedback on these forums is totally obscured by dozens of angry hyperbole. Whatever you think of Megaserver, it is not destroying the game. It is not the worst thing ArenaNet has ever done. It is not so broken that the only option is to immediately remove it. They did not do it to save tons of money because the game is failing.

Chill. Out.

If this community doesn’t police its own worst offenders, it will remain a toxic pool of discontent. We’ve seen great examples of self-regulating our members within the CDI posts. Bringing that same attitude to the entire forum would be a great first step at helping developers be comfortable enough to post here regularly.

We need to build trust with them first. Trust is earned. We aren’t earning it.

There’s a few individuals here who are spending far too much time trying to advance their personal agendas rather than attempting to brainstorm ways to make GW2 raids fun and unique.

Chris, my suggestion would be to close this main phase of the CDI and break down your requests into much, much narrower topics. For example: Raid Boss Mechanics, Raid Rewards, Raid Progression Systems, etc.

Additionally, I’d suggest focusing conversation by shifting into specific questions faster. Leaving the floor open for anybody to contribute anything may seem helpful, but it tends to be that constraints bring out creativity.

Iason Evan.3806:

I just need to either enjoy what they make or stop playing.

This would be easier if they didn’t keep saying, “Oh, we hear what you’re saying, here’s a horribly-implemented version of that thing you requested.”

The title “Been There. Done That.” indicates that you have been completed all POIs, Vistas, Waypoints, Hearts, and Skill Points in the game. Including WvW.

It’s not a PvE Title just because you say it’s a PvE Title.

Morfedel.4165:

timmyf.1490:

Morfedel.4165:

But when they have a second romantic relationship taking center stage centered around two females AGAIN, thats what made me begin to wonder what was going on.

It wasnt the fact they exist; its the fact that two in a row took more major screen time back to back.

There are a variety of relationships in the Personal Story and in the Living World. If we just look at Living World, we have:

Hetero Romantic: Peneloopee/Bloomanoo, Faren/prettymucheverybody, Braham/Ottilia
kitten Romantic: KasJory
Hetero Non-Romantic: Rox/Braham, (hinted at) Braham/Taimi, Kiel/Magnus, Kasmeer/Faren
kitten Non-Romantic: KasJory before it moved to the other column, X-o-Tron/Marcello, Thorn/Edrick

There are many relationships and dynamics, it’s just that one of those pairs kissed in a cut scene.

The romantic relationships that took center stage, however, have been pretty much one type.

I totally forgot that Rox had a romantic thing with a ‘bandmate. So that’s another one.

Anyway, we’re obviously never going to agree on this, but I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy the in-game representation of an often-marginalized segment of society. Hopefully ArenaNet will include more heterosexual relationships in the game, center stage, as you say, so that you don’t feel so uncomfortable.

It’s okay for ArenaNet to test different prices to see what their sales look like.

It’d also be best if everybody avoided buying the mini at this price to ensure they get the message.

GM Talon.4851:

There’s no animation effect that plays when an account gets terminated in Guild Wars 2 at the moment.

GM Talon.4851:

There’s no effect at the moment.

GM Talon.4851:

at the moment.

Dhuum animations confirmed under development.

;-)

Templar’s post above me – which I assume will quickly be removed as he expresses his desire to physically attack ArenaNet employees – is exactly the kind of post I’m talking about.

Until this community gets rid of this kind of crap, ArenaNet employees will likely limit their posting on these boards.

Totally unacceptable.

Given these three options:

1) Mix and match, usable in combat
2) Mix and match, not usable in combat
3) Single style, usable in combat

…EVERYBODY would pick #1. That’s not an option we have, though.

Colin-

I’ve suggested this a couple times, but just in case it’s been overlooked… If you want to make doing Dynamic Events more rewarding, just increase the rewards! They don’t need to be different. Gold, Experience, and Karma all have useful sinks/conversions in game already.

I think that, rather than flatly increasing the rewards, you should scale the rewards based on how long the event went uncompleted. For example, an event like Champ Boar that gets fired off as soon as it’s ready will give the same rewards. An event that is often neglected, failed, or uncompleted, (like most of the escort quests), would scale gold, experience, and karma up based on a timer.

For example, if it goes 30 minutes before completion, you get double the normal rewards. If it’s 4 hours, you get 5x rewards. If it’s 8 hours, you get 10x rewards. That kind of thing.

This means that zones with low player population suddenly become very rewarding for groups of players who want to run through and complete events. Suddenly, these zones which are mostly empty are full of people. Players on high-population servers are guesting down to less-populated servers for the extra rewards (and those on the low-pop servers suddenly have open-world friends).

zMajc.4659:

Greeting,

Do do you have any plans to make changes to Dredge fractal to bring it more in line with other fractals? If so, can you give us a rough estimate?

This is why we can’t have nice things.

Reading comprehension on this thread is not great. Let’s try quoting the relevant parts.

ThunderBadger.3049:

And for the record, I don’t care about the other players who run around with nothing on. That’s not my problem. My problem is I don’t want to wear that stuff.

Making my character look cool is a huge part of what’s fun to me about playing this game, and it’s really infuriating every time they make a new armor set. “Oh, a new armor! What does it look like?…Aw man I wanted armor, not armor with a big hole in the chest and stomach.”

There are certainly many armors that they could make that aren’t promiscuous, nor full blown “nun” either. They just don’t seem to choose to. Lots of players including me would probably like armor that is practical, or even beautiful and elegant. You don’t have to show any extra skin to do so.

There’s no censorship going on, the OP is just asking for some new female chest armor to be added that’s doesn’t look like a push-up bra.

Contribution should be significantly more rewarding than standing in the corner doing nothing. Period.

When you get equal or, in this crazy case, BETTER rewards/achievements for doing nothing than something, there is a problem.

Not all opinions are equal. PvPers who play at a high level for 8+ hours a day should be giving more input than Random Rabbit Rank on the forums.

I have no problems with devs working alongside important PvP community members to work on balance. In fact, I think it’s a good thing. When I saw that spreadsheet, I shared it with my guild as a “look! Don’t worry! This stuff is definitely getting handled” thing.

Also: not why Wildstar flopped.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Shinzan.2908:

I’m more convinced turning to a traditional content release concept rather doing this episodic thing would be better for GW2. The instances with Roxx and Braham, Scarlet’s playhouse etc could have been triggered after one finishes their living story as the next chapters so people can do them at their own pace and experience a personalized story. Doing it that way would allow for things like recognition from NPC’s or slight alterations based on our characters past choices.

Meanwhile the Molten Facility or Aetherblade retreat would have been better as new permanent dungeons, with explorable paths as well as their own rewards and armor.

In my opinion a game just shouldn’t try be a TV show.

I’m not sure the two need to be mutually exclusive. What if every X amount of time that seemed reasonable, the story simply kept being expanded in the way you’re discussing rather than be released in one big chunk?

But if you’re not up to that point in the story arc, you can play it when ever you get there.

I have an interesting comparison, Colin. Right now, you guys are doing broadcast TV before TiVo and DVRs. New content regularly, but if you miss it, you’re out of luck. You’re talking about TV + Hulu, more or less: shows come out normally, but if you miss them, you can catch up.

What interests me is where TV itself is heading: look at the success Netflix is having. Release the entire season in one go and let people absorb the content at their pace. The problem: that’s the “expansion” model that you’re trying to get away from.

You’re working off of a metaphor, but the metaphor may not be telling you what you think it’s telling you.

(As a side note, I like regular releases, I’m just pointing out some tension that exists in using TV as a model.)

Annoying, yes. Potentially expensive, yes. Deserving of a quick fix, yes.

Pay-to-Win, no.

I had a guy on Reddit tell me yesterday that if I don’t accept the holy trinity, he “doubts [I’ll] ever find happiness in life.”

This game has no trinity. It should never have a trinity. If you want an MMO with a trinity, there are literally dozens of games you can play. Choice is good.

Make the right choice: say no to strict role specialization.

pugster.9378:

Also, I would like to know how can you get ascended weapon/armor chest now? Thanks.

Do you have access to a time machine?

So happy I chose not to farm for that stupid portal. Sorry you missed out, OP, but asking for a Legendary is…

…well, I’d tell you what it is, but I’m going to avoid the infraction points instead.

Proposal Overview

Use Fractals to expand on three stories which exist in both GW1 and GW2: the White Mantle (yes, they are in GW2!), Glint, and the Titans. This can also be a stepping stone toward more content dealing with the Elder Dragons.

Goal of Proposal

Bring more existing lore into Fractals as well as bringing back some memorable experiences from the original Prophecies franchise.

Proposal Functionality

Three new Fractals. I’ll keep these slightly vague, so use your imagination to fill in the details. And discuss!

In Henge Fractal, a re-imagining of the Aurora Glade mission from GW1, players must simultaneously hold three thorn pedestals while being assaulted by White Mantle. Once the pedestals have been held, players must fight Saul D’Alessio and his Mursaat guards.

In Crystal Fractal, a re-imagining of the Dragon’s Lair mission, players must choose one of three paths, each with different sets of debuffs, on their way to battle the dragon Glint.

In Fire Island Fractal, players must navigate through the core of a volcano while battling back Titans to a dangerous battle with the Undead Lich and his captive Prince Rurik.

I think ArenaNet can come up with details better than I can. What I would like to suggest is that each of these Fractals can integrate with expanded story about an Elder Dragon: Henge can tie into more about the Maguuma jungle and Mordremoth. Crystal ties in with Kralkatorrik. Fire Island ties in with the Titans and Primordius.

It gives a way to tie Fractals together with developments in the Living World.

Associated Risks

For those who want new lore, this could be seen as a disappointment. ArenaNet would have to be careful to tie these Fractals in with new stories. A simple replay of GW1 missions wouldn’t be particularly exciting.

Wonderly.1324:

• Remove RNG from precursors and make them obtainable only from vendor purchase at 3000g a piece

I’m not sure what’s worse: this suggestion or the possibility you aren’t joking.

I do hope that players someday learn mindlessly mashing every ability as soon as it’s off cooldown isn’t the best way to play your class.

I hope. But I am not hopeful.

Proposal Overview

Guild Notification area in the top right of the screen (in the Story + Event notification area).

Goal of Proposal

Having a Guild Calendar is nice, but players often don’t think to look, forget to look, etc. Same thing for a Guild MOTD. Putting it in the chat box on login is also nice, but it’s easily forgotten.

Placing a Guild Notification area in the top right of the screen with a short MOTD (limited to 100-150 characters) as well as listing the next three events on the guild calendar could help to keep everybody in the loop.

Proposal Functionality

This might be easiest with a REALLY quick and dirty mockup.

Potential Risks

As it’s toggleable, I don’t think there would be many risks. More screen clutter, I guess.

I’m unsure as whether the click-to-open options would work as the current behavior has clicks collapse the panel. That’s something that is debateable.

Would a system like this help?

My primary concern are collision/padding issues as they make my physically ill, sometimes to the point that I have to stop playing the game. Jumping puzzles are the worst – they so often seem to be in tight areas with lots of floating things.

As a great example of this, watch the camera bounce off of the small pipes in the Not So Secret jumping puzzle. (I’ve linked you to the right point in time.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5rT_uLu9yw&t=2m25s

I like that example because it’s 100% obvious what’s happening. The camera hits a pipe and pulls in closer to the player. But the pipe is thin, so it’s very soon able to return to its standard position. Oh, there’s another pipe! Time to move closer! etc.

dlonie.6547:

Thunderbird.8036:

Oh Look. Dace can copy and past. Nothing informative or helpful. But good to see even kittens like him can go to forums to pick on anyone who dares open his mouth. Happy Moron day to you too.

Well, you put up a blatantly hyperbolic statement that is an obscene exaggeration of sliver of truth, and say “Don’t tell me I’m wrong”.

What sort of response did you expect? If you want intelligent answers, try asking intelligent questions.

Yeah, the proper way to approach this would be like so:

“Dodge doesn’t seem to work for me. Am I supposed to be able to dodge everything? For example, the Spider Queen in Kessex Hills seems to be able to cocoon me even if I’m dodging.

If dodge doesn’t work on all attacks, what’s the point?"

You’re welcome to have your opinion, but when you start off by saying “don’t tell me I’m wrong” and calling a core game mechanic “useless,” you’re going to get some flak.

tl;dr if you want helpful answers, ask a question.

Nike.2631:

The single best investment of energy you can do to make the world Living (as opposed to a Living Story) is to layer on more and more DEs with branching pass/fail interdependencies so that even 6 months later, I can wander through say Mount Maelstrom, and while the geography is familiar, there things going on I’ve never seen before. And if the DE pass/fail states actually radically alter the landscape, even better. And its work that endures – its there to entertain first time new players and to enchant and surprise veteran players out for a stroll.

I agree with this wholeheartedly.

From what I understand, ArenaNet made one attempt to add a batch of new Dynamic Events to the world. When nobody seemed to notice or care, that approach was abandoned.

The problem? You added them at the same time that we got the Halloween content, so lots of folks didn’t notice until later! Also, the 50 or so (I think that was the count) new DEs were spread all over the place, and it was close to launch, and you never listed out what the new events were in patch notes or anything, so a lot of us probably thought they were just events from launch we hadn’t seen before.

I don’t know what amount of effort this requires, but I’m curious as to whether you would consider trying to add at least 5-10 new DEs in one or two zones per patch cycle? That’d help to keep all the content fresh over time. This, plus scaled rewards (higher DE rewards the longer an event has gone uncompleted) would really help to revitalize zones that lots of us never visit anymore.

dutchiez.7502:

timmyf.1490:

dutchiez.7502:

I like it, but how about this:

And now do this:

Scales 1-19: No turrets, no champs
Scales 20-39: Turrets, no champs
Scales 40+: Champs instead of turrets

Or something along those lines. Now you have an interesting fight with different mechanics that change (and become more difficult) as scale increases.

But noobs are still welcome at the lower scales. Even if they click the endurance bar to dodge. ;-)

I was just taking a shower and thinking about how I left this part out :P.
That’s exactly the kind of thing that could make for interesting mechanical scaling (changing the bosses/champions attacks, adding/replacing turrets and champions) and also numerical scaling (numbers on boss buffs).

I think, when talking about scaling, there are four things that are important:

1) Getting the right difficulty at the lower end so everybody can join
2) Getting the right difficulty at the upper end so elite players can differentiate themselves (with Fractals, you could argue there shouldn’t be an arbitrary upper end, but let’s leave that out for a moment)
3) Getting the right marginal difficulty so each scale up feels a little bit harder but not a TON harder
4) Potentially changing the mechanics as scale increases (or based on party comp or based on player choice) so that it always feels new and fresh

My concern – and I think the concern of a few others here – was about making sure #4 doesn’t break #1. The concerns of you fine rT and DnT folks is more around making sure that #1 and #4 don’t break #2.

I really do think it’s possible to hit all 4 of these points at the same time and hope that these things are strongly considered in future updates to Fractals.

Serelisk.6573:

It’s not hundreds, it’s closer to 60-70. And it’s not hard. It actually requires a very basic level of communication. No specialized builds needed (though having a couple people who know how to use reflect helps a lot).

The problem is that people would rather complain on forums about how their loot was nerfed than cooperating with the people around them to claim their EASY 8 champ bags every 15-20 minutes or so.

I’d say the majority of players are doing what they’ve always done: flocking to the Blue Dorito, autoattacking while doing other things on a second monitor, and expecting a huge reward.

Oh, and ignoring mapchat completely.

It’s mostly people disliking changes they’ve made to the game and attempting to shoe-horn that into the Manifesto to give their complaints legitimacy. For example:

“I don’t like this!”
“That’s just how Guild Wars 2 works, go play another game.”

Versus:

“I don’t like this and ArenaNet is even breaking their own rules!”
“Now I have to choose whether to defend an idealistic, pre-release Guild Wars 2 or a Guild Wars 2 which has been available and needs to actually sell copies and gem store items to succeed…. crap.”

Windsagio.1340:

What they were saying was still hurting ANet

If negative comments about ArenaNet or their content get you kicked from partner programs/raid testing/whatever, I think there’s a long list of people who apparently got exceptions (and continue to get them regularly). And if being salty, offensive, or childish gets you kicked, I can think of a handful of streamers ArenaNet regularly promotes who deserve the boot.

This seems inconsistent with ArenaNet’s past actions and specific to either a) raids or b) DnT. In the end, ArenaNet gets to make their own decisions about who to include or not include. No problem there. But the public shaming on the forums, including leaving the post open for comments (and then almost certainly abuse) seems out of character for them and (imho) rather distasteful.

Serious question for you, Pixie. Do you honestly believe that the Anet developers have no clue that people are frustrated with some of the Megaserver functionality right now?

I find it far more likely that they 1) know 2) are trying to do something about it 3) aren’t saying anything because they’re trying to figure out a fix and implement it as quickly as possible but haven’t fully fleshed out what that looks like or how long it will take.

Asko.4120:

I don’t mean to sound like a jerk, but if you are ‘well aware of’ the player displeasement with the current implementation of the dredge fractal, why haven’t you done anything about it for the last year?

I speculated about this in an earlier post, but my best guess is that there is internal disagreement about this Fractal, but the decision was made to keep it as is and most devs are just trying to avoid making any comment about it at all as they need to present a unified message to players.

This is pretty standard corporate policy. My hope is, over time, ArenaNet feels more comfortable allowing individual developers some leeway in discussing personal feelings which may differ from the official position. I think Josh Foreman is best known for doing so and most of us here have tons of respect for him because of it.

That said: Chris has made it pretty clear that Dredge won’t be discussed, so let’s try to find other topics and move forward.

I thought a huge part of the fun of WvW is devising and executing long-term (multi-month) strategies with a group of folks outside your own guild. WvW has the most interesting metagame of any mode… why would you annihilate that one strength?

Terrible idea.

Rauderi.8706:

Yeeeah, I have a friend who’s a rather strong feminist.

Does she lift?

Edit: also, shame on me for assuming your friend was female. Feminism can and does appeal to non-female gendered individuals as well.

Rauderi.8706:

I shuddered to recommend the game to her after seeing some of the endgame outfits. Masquerade was the worst offender by far. Or maybe it was the craftable harem outfit.

My girlfriend’s response to the Ancestral outfit was basically, “Would buy if it didn’t have a boob window.” I wonder what the net change in sales is due to boob window addition?

Perhaps ArenaNet will one day create this as a natural experiment for us: load two identical versions – except for boob window – and see which sells the best.

They also didn’t listen when people complained that high-level zone map completion shouldn’t be required to get lower level traits.

Rauderi.8706:

Yeah, those suck, not gonna lie. :\

I’m experienced enough to know usually which tasks produce the best renown output, but it still leads to waiting. I usually just trot off and kill stuff while I wait. [/shrug]

I’m going to take it a step further. Renown Hearts suck.

Hearts were not originally intended for this game and it shows. (The back story: players were confused about where to go to find Dynamic Events. Hearts were added as a way to guide players to the right places and hopefully make them stick around long enough for an event to start.)

Sure, not all hearts suck. Some of them are pretty fun. But they all have the same problem: they are too much like quests.

GW2 was designed to throw away the old “kill ten rats” quest model, but hearts basically bring that gameplay back. Sure, you get a choice between kill ten rats or click on A, run to B, click on B… (Let’s be real: that’s 80% of the hearts.)

When I started, I was playing with 5 or 6 real-life friends. We were running around together. It was 1) run to heart 2) everybody completes the heart 3) repeat. It was BORING. SO BORING.

Eventually, I split off and tried something different. I pretended the hearts didn’t exist. I’d explore, unlock map and waypoints, get POIs and Vistas that didn’t seem like a pain, and do dynamic events. But no hearts. (Some would complete as I did DEs, that was fine.)

The game INSTANTLY became waaaaay more fun! It felt fresh and new and not at all grindy. I started paying less attention to the UI and more to the world. I started listening to NPCs and following them around to see what they did. (Which often meant DEs were popping.)

So OP, if hearts feel grindy or boring or whatever, stop doing them. I bet, like me, you’ll have a way better time.

The real improvements dungeons (and Fractals) need are exploit fixes. It’s basically impossible to pug half the content without your team expecting you to exploit.

Hell, I even see LFG posts like “AC 1, 3+2” nowadays. Crazy.

I like the idea of needing a certain number of “tokens” for access. How about something like this?

Beta Portal: Cost of 25 Tokens

You are assigned 1 token for:

• Every 1000 Achievement Points
• Completing the Points of No Return Living Story Chapter
• Every 10 PvP Ranks
• Every 50 WvW Ranks
• Every 5 Hall of Monuments Points
• Certain titles: Dungeon Master, Light in the Darkness, etc.

Additionally, tokens drop from DT/SW at a higher (5x) rate than they do currently.

Gaile-

I’ve polled my guild to ask them what they want to do. The answer, overwhelmingly, was dungeons. Now, nearly everybody ALSO said they liked Living Story stuff, but dungeons came up time and time again as “we want to do more of this.”

If ArenaNet could commit to adding a new full dungeon (story + 3x explorable tied in with Living World with corresponding weapon and armor sets) every 6-9 months, you’d be providing endgame content for your most active players.

Imagine the Scarlet fight was Story and we got explorables investigating her creations! Marionette path, Toxic hybrid path, Holopath…

“Open Air Dungeons?” Puhhhleeeeease. Make them real instances so I can play with my guild and keep the pugs out. You want to “play how I want?” Fine. I want to play with whom I want.

Let’s be clear here: direct damage is king in this game (PvE specific) because of these reasons…

1) Most encounters are fast enough that sustain is not important.
2) Condition caps
3) No condition damage against structures
4) Defiant :-(
5) Dodge for damage avoidance
6) Poor scaling of healing and toughness

Adding subclasses doesn’t fix any of those issues. It just means that everybody has to figure out which subclass works best with their existing DPS build.

Don’t add subclasses. FIX CONDITION BUILDS IN PVE. I soooo badly wanted to play a Confusion Mesmer, but it’s terrible. I’m so much better now that I have a Zerk phantasm build with Sword/Pistol+Focus…

I think I’m going to start a thread:

List of Threads Lishtenbird Has Started To Complain About the Same Things

I’ll be sure to reserve at least 5-6 posts at the beginning for future links.

I wish Colin would just show up and clarify that “play how you want” is indeed referring to getting top-stat gear, NOT skins, NOT legendaries, NOT low-population world bosses, NOT optimal builds, NOT traits, NOT anything other than “you can get max-stat gear in WvW… you can get max-stat gear in open-world PvE… you can get max-stat gear in dungeons…”

Randulf.7614:

I still not sure why every content has to be 2 weeks though. It should last as long as it needs to progress the story.

Said another way…

We LOVE that you ADD content every two weeks.

We HATE that you often REMOVE roughly the same amount of content every two weeks.

You’ve basically got it correct. A few things:

Heals are required, but additional Healing Power (the stat) is not. Healing Power scales TERRIBLY, meaning adding Healing Power doesn’t make your heals all that much more powerful.

It’s definitely harder to avoid damage as much in PvP, that’s why full glass (Zerker, etc) builds are less common there and you see stat sets like Celestial or Soldiers (for WvW) become more popular.

Oh, and the biggest active defense? Dodge. Between dodge, blind, and block, you can avoid the vast majority of damage in PvE.