Guild Wars 2

I actually reinstalled GW1 because of the void left by the dungeon nerfs. I was never one for open world and immediately gravitated towards the group mission type content that GW1 revolved around. But, that’s another story for another thread.

When I came back the graphics were not as bad as one might think for a game over a decade old. Some of the scenes in Presearing are just as beautiful as I remembered them, and the EOTN expansion really made the best out of their graphics engine. It took things to a whole new level than factions and nightfall had, but overall everything still looks good, even by todays standards.

I don’t think they should remake GW1. GW1 is GW1 and GW2 is good in its own way too. Probably rather controversial for me to say but, their direction with the HoT maps actually satisfied me. They created group content within the open world which appealed to me more than the core world where I could hew through hordes of enemies without even worrying I might go half health. Even so, the instanced dungeons left a void that I’m now filling with GW1

I encourage anyone who misses the game, to just go back. People are still there. Spamadan still has multiple districts.

… I really think this is a large part of why HoT feels so small; players have been stuck in SilverWastes 2.0for months.

AndyJo.8794:

Literally no point on this post made sense… silverwasting wouldn’t help you get anything discussed in this thread.

Do raids now, or wait for LS3 and get them how you got pink Sinisters gear[/quote]

The was that because Anet has to cordon off the new paid content from those who didn’t pay for it, limits HoTs play style and how players can make in game progress, including the acquisition of new statsets and gear. In the core game it could be in a collection spreadout over content, craftable, purchase off the TP, etc etc. But with anything it has to be acquirable by a means only available to those that bought the expac. So everything in HoT has to be: account bound, and purchased with map currency. Which is similar (but much more extreme) to the impementation of the silverwastes (accountbound items, even food, purchase with geodes).

I needed 15 characters

Get full ascended gear on them all and then ask again in 5years.

This frustrates me too. Every time I do a meta-event like Silverwastes or one of the HoT maps and then try to empty my bags I hit this. And it seems to get more strict after the first time it’s triggered – if you wait a few seconds you can sell another item or two, then you’ll have to wait about 10 seconds, then sell 1 item, then wait about 30 seconds….until it becomes impractical to keep trying and I have to go and do other things until I can finish selling stuff.

I do try to empty my bags in between stages of the event, but depending on what you’re doing there may not be time to get through it all so it still ends up building up.

I realise there’s a good reason for it to exist, to stop (or at least slow down) bots, but it definitely seems too sensitive to me if normal players can hit it on a regular basis.

It’s probably not a problem for everyone, especially if you don’t normally pick the ‘sell instantly’ option, but when I’ve got a bag full of greens and blues and the difference between the buy orders and sell orders is about 1s I’d rather just sell them quickly, and that’s when this becomes a problem.

It’s certainly not game-breaking, but it would be nice if it could be toned down a bit so real players are less likely to trigger it.

I had absolutely no difficulty completing any of the HoT content. Of course, you need a map to complete the one meta (dragon stand), but still.

Creatures in game expansions should be more challenging than the core game. Based upon the fact that you’re supposed to complete the core game before diving right into HoT. If you’re trying to complete HoT without at least a max level with exotic gear, you’re going to struggle. This content was intended for players who know how to play, how do dodge, when to properly use skills, and how events work.

Players complained that the game was too easy, toughness was worthless, and warrior was king. Now we have a segment where toughness wasn’t such a bad idea, you can’t just swing a Greatsword and expect to win, and you are actually required to think before you cast aggro and maybe pick and choose your battles for once while also playing to your strengths.

And players hate it.

Funny that.

The HoT maps need a overhaul in a couple of areas. One being the Mega Server System in the map being absolutely terrible to deal with the participation system. This has even been confirmed by John Smith as being a problem with the new areas being attached to these mechanics. Next would be the Diminishing Return system with the new liner map timed meta areas. You need to spend a lot of time in these maps but the DR system kicks in way too soon on any of these maps. So it’s very counter productive. Also the LFG system need to be updated badly for all the new areas. Finally there needs to be a better balance for these new currency map “rewards.” There is no reason why some of these rewards (especially the ones in Dragon Stand) should be that obnoxious to get.

Alright, as for this next balance update fixing some of these elements. I kind of doubt it. The only thing that we seem to be getting is scribing according to Mike. Which is going to really disappointing if that is the only thing that gets fixed.

DoctorDing.5890:

Yeah, you are a real hero. See above.

Right back at you. See what I just said above. I’ll even elaborate.

HoT is challenging, not overly difficult. We’re use to the cakewalk that is the rest of Tyria. We’ve spent years on content that we can, at this point, probably do in our sleep. I can solo champions throughout the rest of the game like they’re trash mobs. And now we’re provided with something moderately challenging, which is such a drastic contrast to what we’ve grown use to. It creates this illusion of impossible odds and overwhelming difficulty, when in reality it’s just making us actually pay attention and try. Makes us work on dodge timing, skill rotation and mastering our build, which a game should do anyway. If you can breeze through the game without trying, it grows dull fast.

In short, it’s not a problem of game difficulty. It’s an issue of player laziness cultivated through years of easy content.

Jushiohara.9140:

Agreed. Glad i didnt have to type out my own response cause this covers it. People need to stop crying about things and just learn how to play it. I had 0 trouble roaming solo on the HOT maps on exotic zerk ranger before the first nerf. Please stop trying to make the entire game beginner level people.

I’m running around on a full zerk Daredevil. I am the definition of squishy, and can survive just fine solo.

The chief problem is people grow so use to how mind numbing Tyria is, there is a considerable disconnect with HoT. It makes the moderate difficulty seem outlandish, when it’s anything but. It gives the illusion of impossible difficulty because the rest of the game is stupid easy.

Honestly, if people took the time to adjust, and acknowledge the disconnect between the two parts of the game, they’d find HoT to be pretty fun. A lot more fun than the rest of Tyria, which I could probably do in a coma.

ImTasty.2163:

1) While I can see jewlecrafting getting bumped to 500 I really don’t see the benefit of increasing cooking to 500. Food in its current state is already strong. Even for JC we still have numerous easy methods to obtain ascended trinkets so I don’t really see a need for them to work on it now but could be something they introduce later.

What I want to know is why they decided against 500 jewelcrafting in the first place? They were obviously either in the progress of doing or very much intending to do it at some point, looking at the fact that obvious mats for it exist in the game, we just can’t get them.

I mean, yeah… ascended trinkets drop like candy if you do the right kind of content, but with raids the acquisition of weapons and armor has also been made a lot easier. So in retrospect if they added the ability to craft ascended trinkets it wouldn’t really be any different from how armor and weapons are now.

ImTasty.2163:

2) Can you provide a link to Anet saying they were going to “complete” the core skills? I’ve never heard it before and would love to read up on that.

I would like to know this too, because I really want this to have a chance at happening.

ImTasty.2163:

3) I will agree with underwater combat needing some overhauls but tbh I’m not expecting that until the Deep Sea Dragon expansion.

I don’t think the DSD expansion would come before this overhaul happens, or if it does they would probably do some weird contrivance to allow land combat to happen in it no matter what. I think underwater combat is in a bit of a catch 22 situation, it makes no sense to develop major content if underwater combat remains as it is and it makes no sense to rewamp it because there is no major content tied to it and people have been predisposed to dislike it.

ImTasty.2163:

All in all, Anet doesn’t really need to “prove” they can finish something because there are tons of finished things in the game already.

Yeah they do, but with recent news and lack of content, and shall we say underwhelming expansion (I think the content we did get with HoT is, in a sense very high quality, but there isn’t that much of it and it is pretty formulaic unfortunately), I can understand where the OP is coming from even though his choice of words for expressing his opinion might not be entirely on point.

Vayne.8563:

Zergs.9715:

Vayne.8563:

Healix.5819:

Behellagh.1468:

1) There was simply no reason for Level 500 Food and Jewelry. It was the presumption of the players that these crafts would go to 500.

“We’ll expand all crafting professions to allow them to reach a new milestone: 500 points!” (2013)

There’s also the Xunlai Ingot

From the same article:

“As always, the content above is subject to change as we test and iterate on these systems.”

Changing your mind on doing something isn’t quite the same as not finishing it. For example we were going to put a shed in our back yard, but we decided on a gazebo instead.

They probably did some tests, and figured the time, energy and expense to level it wouldn’t be worth it, so they changed their minds about doing it.

When someone says “We are raising crafts to 500 but as we iterate they are subject to change” the reasonable assumption is that said systems already exist and are being modified and iterated upon, not that they are completely gutted (if there was anything to gut in the first place) and removed from the game.

Since we are comparing stuff.
Customer commissioned me to make a four legged table and I deliver them table with only two legs and I also brought bunch of books to be put in place of missing legs. Naturally customer is kittened. But then another guy who also bought it starts defending me and my two legged table telling my latest customer how he/she should be grateful for having any legs at all and that books are perfectly good substitute.
This is what’s happening right now.

Interpreting such vague statements in a way you’re doing is a basically a blank check for never finishing anything and freedom from responsibility for not delivering listed stuff. The future posts like “Looking ahead” should, by that logic, probably contain only one sentence:
“Do not expect anything.”

Sorry but saying that I’m going to deliver something that later changes to the game make not useful isn’t the same thing as what you’re saying.

They simply didn’t see how adding jewelry would improve the game in my opinion. I don’t think it would improve my game.

The ascended armor and weapons were mat sinks. There’s just no reason to believe most people would be interested in upping their jewelry crafting.

In Anet’s blog post about iteration they did say they sometimes scrap entire systems if they don’t end up being what they want to be.

And it’s not like tons of people love ascended crafting anyway.

They didn’t add the entire system and then remove it.

What value you place on the ascended crafting has nothing to do with this discussion.

They said they were going to do something and they didn’t do it. There is a special phrase to communicate that. It’s called breaking a promise.

Taking another sentence out of context in the same article doesn’t absolve them of the responsibility they put on themselves by their own words.

Here is what balanced expectations look like.

“We are looking into expanding all the crafting professions to 500, but a final decision has not been made yet. We may choose to drop some professions based on testing and user feedback.”

That is not this:

“We are going to expand all crafting professions to 500!”

That is always:

“We are going to expand all crafting professions to 500!”

It doesn’t matter if they said in another section that things are subject to change via testing. If that was contextually relevant to the above statement, then they should not have said…

“We are going to expand all crafting professions to 500!”

Vayne.8563:

Zergs.9715:

Vayne.8563:

Healix.5819:

Behellagh.1468:

1) There was simply no reason for Level 500 Food and Jewelry. It was the presumption of the players that these crafts would go to 500.

“We’ll expand all crafting professions to allow them to reach a new milestone: 500 points!” (2013)

There’s also the Xunlai Ingot

From the same article:

“As always, the content above is subject to change as we test and iterate on these systems.”

Changing your mind on doing something isn’t quite the same as not finishing it. For example we were going to put a shed in our back yard, but we decided on a gazebo instead.

They probably did some tests, and figured the time, energy and expense to level it wouldn’t be worth it, so they changed their minds about doing it.

When someone says “We are raising crafts to 500 but as we iterate they are subject to change” the reasonable assumption is that said systems already exist and are being modified and iterated upon, not that they are completely gutted (if there was anything to gut in the first place) and removed from the game.

Since we are comparing stuff.
Customer commissioned me to make a four legged table and I deliver them table with only two legs and I also brought bunch of books to be put in place of missing legs. Naturally customer is kittened. But then another guy who also bought it starts defending me and my two legged table telling my latest customer how he/she should be grateful for having any legs at all and that books are perfectly good substitute.
This is what’s happening right now.

Interpreting such vague statements in a way you’re doing is a basically a blank check for never finishing anything and freedom from responsibility for not delivering listed stuff. The future posts like “Looking ahead” should, by that logic, probably contain only one sentence:
“Do not expect anything.”

Sorry but saying that I’m going to deliver something that later changes to the game make not useful isn’t the same thing as what you’re saying.

They simply didn’t see how adding jewelry would improve the game in my opinion. I don’t think it would improve my game.

The ascended armor and weapons were mat sinks. There’s just no reason to believe most people would be interested in upping their jewelry crafting.

In Anet’s blog post about iteration they did say they sometimes scrap entire systems if they don’t end up being what they want to be.

And it’s not like tons of people love ascended crafting anyway.

You wot mate? What you said is completely ridiculous! I’ve read some of your posts and I know you’re smart guy, so I refuse to believe that your rhetoric is unintentional apologetics!

By that… “logic” you could easily ask: why should anything be added ever?
There’s no reason to believe people would be interested? Again such vague statements you can apply to pretty much anything. If they made it people would do it. If nothing else then to get achievements for 500 crafting.

• Why do we have karma exotics when we can craft them?
• Why do we have crafting when we have karma gear?
• Why do we have jewelery at all when we can cram all those stats into armor?
• Why do we have all those items when we can wear only one amulet like in pvp
  etc etc etc

I mean who would be interested in all that stuff, there’s just not enough reason to believe that. How about doing it for the sake of consistency and comprehensibility of your game, for providing alternative venues of acquisition and because it’s a logical progression path?

Ascended crafting is kitten because you have to brute force it and then sink insane amounts of resources to get a full set. Now if Anet had spread that material load across more crafting professions like.. jewelcrafting for example, individual pieces would be easier to obtain and you would make it more bearable and maybe less people would hate it, myself included.

Now, I know you latched onto ascended because its easy to defend it with same tired phrases I’ve seen parroted countless times, but this is not just about ascended and I am done responding to you because I don’t think you’ve entered this thread with your mind open enough to have your mind changed. Regardless of what you say, the facts stays. Crafting. Is. Not. Complete. The table is two legged. And that’s what this thread is about among other things.

Vayne.8563:

Healix.5819:

Behellagh.1468:

1) There was simply no reason for Level 500 Food and Jewelry. It was the presumption of the players that these crafts would go to 500.

“We’ll expand all crafting professions to allow them to reach a new milestone: 500 points!” (2013)

There’s also the Xunlai Ingot

From the same article:

“As always, the content above is subject to change as we test and iterate on these systems.”

Changing your mind on doing something isn’t quite the same as not finishing it. For example we were going to put a shed in our back yard, but we decided on a gazebo instead.

They probably did some tests, and figured the time, energy and expense to level it wouldn’t be worth it, so they changed their minds about doing it.

This goes back to communication and managing customer’s expectations. It should not be the customer’s responsibility to guess whether they “did some tests, and figured the time, energy and expense to level it wouldn’t be worth it”.

If you state an intention and then later change your mind, it is your responsibility to communicate your new intention. It is not unreasonable for customers to expect you to follow through with your original intention if you have not communicated that you have “changed your mind.”

There will doubtless be someone who rushes to point out that ANet doesn’t want to communicate that kind of thing because people on the forums respond angrily. To which I will respond: Of course they respond angrily. That’s often how people respond when you back out of commitments.

The concept of “Things are subject to change” is not some kind of magical “Get out of jail free” card that absolves them from any level of responsibility to honor their commitments.

Zergs.9715:

Anet has yet to prove that it’s capable of finishing ANYTHING they start working on. These are issues that are dragging on since release. So before moving on to another thing I suggest you turn around and take good look at what you terrible lack of consistency and discipline left in its wake. These are too big to be left in a state they are in right now!

1. Ascended crafting.

• No 500 jewelcrafting
• No jewel socketing on ascended, of course
• No 500 cook.

2. Still no sign of full core skill sets that were promised eons ago.

• Elementalist (conjure heal, arcane elite, signet elite)
• Warrior (banner heal, physical heal, Mending undefined, elite stance, elite shout)
• Ranger (signet heal, elite trap, elite signet)
• Necromancer (spectral heal, elite signet, elite well)
• Guardian (spirit weapon heal, consecration heal, Shelter undefined, elite spirit weapon, elite consecration)
• Thief (trap heal, elite signet, elite trap)
• Engineer (gadget heal, elite gadget)
• Mesmer (glamour heal, Ether Feast undefined, clone/phantasm heal, elite mantra, elite clone/phantasm)

3. Everything related to underwater left in shambles

• No second Revenant underwater weapon.
• Ton of skills not working underwater across all classes
• discontinued production of underwater skins

4. Legendary weapons dropped

5. LS season 1 still missing

6. SAB never going to get finished

Probably I’m missing more stuff that’s just dropped unfinished into the game, but to me these are the biggest, most glaring issues that need to be addressed.

As a GW lore buff, I could make a list of unfinished and abandoned story lines. However, I think I’ll hit the character limit. I think I’ll just make a short list of the most obvious ones.

- Eir took Magdaer from the catacombs of ascalon, then Eir dies, and nothing is done with Magdaer.

- In GW1 the Scepter of Orr was picked up by Livia, aaaaaaaannnnd nothing.

- The personal stories at the start of the game, the ones that are unique to each story line have loose endings, almost none of those have been explored; including but not limited to: The Sylvari from the Maguuma jungle, the feud between the human throne and the ministry, any of the asura inventions, the list goes on.

- Anything with the captains council the lion guard was surprisingly absent after they rebuilt lions arch during the mordremonth attack. I didn’t even see them, with their new ships, providing any relief. It’s as if the lionguard was totally forgotten.

- Orr being purified, it’s been a few years and there has been 0 progression on that front.

- pretty much ANY of the dungeon stories, story mode or explorable stories. Crucible of Eternity, Arah, Citadel of flame, ect.

- We still have no idea what Fractals of the Mist actually is or is about. We had one short story when the Thumanova Reactor was released then nothing.

- Anything about the human gods. Seriously we have no idea what happened after the exodus or why the hell they stopped talking to us.

I think I’ll cut it there. The list would go on for a while.

Vayne.8563:

Healix.5819:

Behellagh.1468:

1) There was simply no reason for Level 500 Food and Jewelry. It was the presumption of the players that these crafts would go to 500.

“We’ll expand all crafting professions to allow them to reach a new milestone: 500 points!” (2013)

There’s also the Xunlai Ingot

From the same article:

“As always, the content above is subject to change as we test and iterate on these systems.”

Changing your mind on doing something isn’t quite the same as not finishing it. For example we were going to put a shed in our back yard, but we decided on a gazebo instead.

They probably did some tests, and figured the time, energy and expense to level it wouldn’t be worth it, so they changed their minds about doing it.

You’re making a completely different argument than that quote was meant to express. Context matters. If you read it, Behellagh said that the players made the presumption that the two crafts would be expanded to 500. The quote shows that it was not an assumption made by the players, but it was based on actual information given by ANET.

Also, anyone who is using the “And you wonder why ANET doesn’t communicate with players” argument: Yeah, it’s super unreasonable to expect that people mean what they say. Why is it that in this format, it’s suddenly inappropriate to use official communication as a fact of intention? This is on the same level as politicians who make stupid statements and then say, “That was not intended to be a factual statement.”

You say things like that, and then you turn around and act like anyone who questions the various development plans that are currently “on the table” are people who just want to complain about everything and if ANET says they’re doing something, then they’re doing it and that’s that.

How do you even live with that kind of cognitive dissonance going on? It boggles the mind.

MetalGirl.2370:

You cant just get in a game after few years and DEMAND you get what you missed.

I’ve been around since release and I’ve played through Season 1. I know this may sound strange to you, but it was actually selfless suggestion and call for more consistent and more polished experience for ALL.

So maybe people like YOU should stop demanding me to do this or that, from a perspective of baseless assumptions.

Vayne.8563:

Healix.5819:

Behellagh.1468:

1) There was simply no reason for Level 500 Food and Jewelry. It was the presumption of the players that these crafts would go to 500.

“We’ll expand all crafting professions to allow them to reach a new milestone: 500 points!” (2013)

There’s also the Xunlai Ingot

From the same article:

“As always, the content above is subject to change as we test and iterate on these systems.”

Changing your mind on doing something isn’t quite the same as not finishing it. For example we were going to put a shed in our back yard, but we decided on a gazebo instead.

They probably did some tests, and figured the time, energy and expense to level it wouldn’t be worth it, so they changed their minds about doing it.

You should sit down and have a one on one with your marketing team if the same article states “We are going to do this very exact thing!” and “We might not do that very exact thing if we test and decide it’s not a good idea to do it”

In my profession, I just usually wait until after I do the testing part before doing the telling part.

But, hey, why bother with that when you have a squadron of fanboy posters ready to prove, via their own unique interpretation of marketing material, that Anet has never promised nor failed to deliver anything ever, even the things they promised and never delivered?

Vayne.8563:

Healix.5819:

Behellagh.1468:

1) There was simply no reason for Level 500 Food and Jewelry. It was the presumption of the players that these crafts would go to 500.

“We’ll expand all crafting professions to allow them to reach a new milestone: 500 points!” (2013)

There’s also the Xunlai Ingot

From the same article:

“As always, the content above is subject to change as we test and iterate on these systems.”

Changing your mind on doing something isn’t quite the same as not finishing it. For example we were going to put a shed in our back yard, but we decided on a gazebo instead.

They probably did some tests, and figured the time, energy and expense to level it wouldn’t be worth it, so they changed their minds about doing it.

When someone says “We are raising crafts to 500 but as we iterate they are subject to change” the reasonable assumption is that said systems already exist and are being modified and iterated upon, not that they are completely gutted (if there was anything to gut in the first place) and removed from the game.

Since we are comparing stuff.
Customer commissioned me to make a four legged table and I deliver them table with only two legs and I also brought bunch of books to be put in place of missing legs. Naturally customer is kittened. But then another guy who also bought it starts defending me and my two legged table telling my latest customer how he/she should be grateful for having any legs at all and that books are perfectly good substitute.
This is what’s happening right now.

Interpreting such vague statements in a way you’re doing is a basically a blank check for never finishing anything and freedom from responsibility for not delivering listed stuff. The future posts like “Looking ahead” should, by that logic, probably contain only one sentence:
“Do not expect anything.”

Behellagh.1468:

1) There was simply no reason for Level 500 Food and Jewelry. It was the presumption of the players that these crafts would go to 500.

“We’ll expand all crafting professions to allow them to reach a new milestone: 500 points!” (2013)

There’s also the Xunlai Ingot

STIHL.2489:

Ok a few things.

• There is no need to make 500 Jewel Crafting when All Ascended Trinkets can be Bought or Drop.
• Ascended Rings have the stats of an Exotic Ring + Upgrade, and a little bit more.
• Ascended Food? Really? Do we need to go there?

I’m sorry but that logic is completely unacceptable to me, because by that line of reasoning we didn’t need all the other crafts raised to 500 because Anet could have simply put all the gear into laurel vendors/fractals/guild rewards.

It was initially put into the game that way to “ease us in” into ascended stuff, but judging by the amount of unfinished stuff that came after, I suspect that this could well be the case here too.

If you look into your material tab (if they haven’t removed them by now lol) there are still ascended material that cannot be seen, found or crafted anywhere in the game. Take a wild guess what they were for.

Design wise exotic jewelery is superior. It offers players flexibility and allows freedom to tweak their builds through jewels and above all it was open to market. Instead, now we are dealing with account bound inflexible stat combos. They could have put ascended jewelery with ascended jewels that make up sum total of current ascended stats, but that’s work.

As for ascended food I believe Palador illustrated potential benefits better than I ever could.

You forgot about the biggest fail so far, namely the the personality trait system.

I wonder how much time and money was spent (wasted) on that while the game was in development?

Sadly, it does seem to sum up the way many things are developed at Anet. Someone has this ‘good’ idea, so they develop it a bit, implement it into the game and then realise they’re not quite sure what they were trying to achieve in the first place and it gets dropped or forgotten about.