Guild Wars 2

Yumiko Ishida.3769:

The company should have explained the UI and event monitor better and how it works in respect to the maps are on, as no one seems to figure out how events work together to open up key areas and thing don’t get done on a map in a timely manner and places that we need opened such as, Balthazar Temple, Incendio Templum, COE, COF to name a few, are closed all day long as everyone ignores events as they don’t know they are all related in some way.

If people cant figure out how a meta event works, expecting them to figure out how to use the UI and/or an event menu would be a fruitless endeavor.

All the meta info is on the wiki. Nobody reads.

If you have enough people that care to event launch though, a handful of players can do the whole thing on their own, minus some taxing bosses.

RE The new changes to NPE:

Leveling up is so painful now compared to what it was, that my alts are all leveled with tomes obtained from PVP.

I refuse to suffer.

I cant imagine how bad a brand new player has it, having to unlock vistas and the trading post and stuff incrementally because the focus group chosen to playtest GW2 had literacy and comprehension deficiencies and having too many options to sift through at the get-go somehow made people not want to play the game.

They’re godkitten UIs. Don’t open them if you don’t know what they do, and read the wiki. Jesus.

The great defense argument of all times: “If you don’t like it, don’t play it. Because I can’t find any other argument to refute your basic arguments!”

Yeah if you don’t like it, don’t level up. You should open a suggestion topic for it.

NPE is just another way to say "Hey new players! We think that you are all dumb and brainless creatures that can’t understand any mechanism in this game, if we don’t create you an illusion of progressing!

For instance we hid red triangles from map! Why? Because the idea of ‘Vista’ is too complicated and you shouldn’t bother your precious brain with it until level X!

Don’t bother veteran players, because they born with the superior knowledge which made them handle all the hardships we put in this game before NPE! And having every (weapon) skill in level 20 is the greatest nemesis for them!"

At level 10 old player experience I could have a grenade kit already, and have gained 5 skill points from just leveling. However, with NPE the level 13 is reached much much faster, so in this regard, leveling is faster.

What hurts is how the traits are: Grandmaster slots unlock on 80? Masters on 60? Was this really necessary? Or putting trait unlocks on slow to repeat events, that are over by the time I get there (I mean Lord Ignius the Eternal. I ported to the nearest wp but not even permaswiftness was enough). That and compressing 1/3 of the trait points into the last 10 levels. Those are pure stupid.

SkyFallsInThunder.8257:

Basaltface.2786:

Phoenixlin.8624:

Yeah locking up everything behind level-gate requires less grind than the old-fashioned way.

All hail NPE and its super progression ideas!

Yea try to level an engi now with the npe. 1 pistol and no kits… was worried the fun might start.

Engineers are by far the hardest hit by the nightmare that is the NPE. The pistol or rifle deal potato damage and you spend a lot of time killing every mob… it’s a nightmare.

Yeap… Making an alt engi atm. Its agony and boredom

Basaltface.2786:

Phoenixlin.8624:

Yeah locking up everything behind level-gate requires less grind than the old-fashioned way.

All hail NPE and its super progression ideas!

Yea try to level an engi now with the npe. 1 pistol and no kits… was worried the fun might start.

Engineers are by far the hardest hit by the nightmare that is the NPE. The pistol or rifle deal potato damage and you spend a lot of time killing every mob… it’s a nightmare.

Phoenixlin.8624:

Yeah locking up everything behind level-gate requires less grind than the old-fashioned way.

All hail NPE and its super progression ideas!

Yea try to level an engi now with the npe. 1 pistol and no kits… was worried the fun might start.

Perhaps something like the LFG list window which I could open or not. Click shows me where it is on the world map (M). How I get there is my problem. Lists events only for my current map/zone:

[“Kill the annoying skritt”][since 2min][click to show on map]
…

I think a progress indicator for all types of events is to difficult and not needed.

Yeah NPE was possibly the worst thing about the game now. Literally everything about it apart from getting rewards to level is counter productive.

The new trait system is absolutely terrible beyond a doubt. It makes classes harder to level and leveling more boring and sucky because you have to wait a ridiculously long time to get traits that are core to a class to even function.

Except that it doesn’t show events that occur anywhere in the zone. You happen to be close enough for it to show…that is clear in the map, is the escort up near the north entry into LA? Would you know without waypointing there? No, you wouldn’t unless someone called it out.

The map is pretty simple but I wish the world map would flash events in the region you were in, not just the mini map. That way players can go “Oh hey an event way over there, I should go and see if people are doing it!” Also the little note in top right corner doesn’t always tell you if something is happening if you’re on the other side of the map.

I really don’t understand why NPE was needed to begin with. The game was EASY to understand when it first launched. I had no problems learning. The UI explained everything. As much as ANET likes to deny it, the NPE was made cause the game launched in China last year. Their version of GW 2 was made almost identical to the NPE we got now.

It was hard to get my friend into this game cause they felt frustrated with the lack of abilities they had access to, not to mention content. Thankfully they were able to get to level 20 no problem but they have told me the whole NPE was extremely silly. Especially when they watched old GW 2 gameplay vids.

At least you don’t lose the skill to a CD anymore when this happens.

Ever since the patch that originally broke the guild chat (you had to change you status to see it), the “Flash on unread messages” option has been broken for me. No matter how many times I uncheck and check it, the tab won’t flash red and stay white no matter how many new messages are there. Is there any way to fix this?

If you want to actually get this fixed you’re going to have to be more specific where you are having these issues and include screen shots if you can. They will not roll these changes back. I’ve actually seen a great improvement with blink in PvP because of these changes. But yeah you’re going to have to specifically tell them where this occurs so they they can reproduce it or they won’t fix it.

Also, no offense, but you come across as being rude and if you want them to fix this issue being rude isn’t going to get you too far. You will most definitely get infractions for spamming but they also aren’t going to look into the issue at all if you’re being rude about it.

Last tip. Make a post about this is the theif forum and see if other thieves are having the same issue and tell them to comment on this thread. The more people who report and confirm this problem the more likely you will get a response. That’s the route to take if you actually want to get a response. I understand you are upset but making angry posts about a bug isn’t going to get it fixed.

Doggie.3184:

Cuz too much of the gaming community simply isn’t as intelligent or patient enough to understand GW2. They tried to give the game lots of freedom but too many people were easily lost in it because they either never played an MMO or were too spoiled by handholding in other ones. Many people are apparently too shy to join a guild and ask questions instead of figuring out things on their own as well and I guess Anet wants to tie a leash (of love) around them somehow.

So basically, the entire human race as a whole have failed you, not Anet. =/ Giving people nearly everything at the get-go and sending them into a free world is too much for an innocent sheep to handle.

I find it baffling that you think you can speak for the entire GW2 community – no – for the entire human race. I’m not sure if you’re serious or not but what you said is completely unfounded and quite frankly ridiculous…

Gamers are among the most intelligent bunch I’ve ever met, more so when we’re talking about (MMO)RPG players. Real gamers (e.g. someone who has gaming as a major hobby and identifies himself as a gamer) don’t need hand-holding and in fact hate it, as is clearly demonstrated with all the hate and vitriol that is spewed on the forums and in-game about the NPE.

I don’t think anyone who played at least some videogames before GW2 was actually confused with GW2 (other than that some gamers who came from other MMOs to GW2 might have been a little confused about certain things because GW2 does things differently from other MMOs, but the NPE didn’t change that).

While real new players (who aren’t just new to GW2 but also rather new to gaming in general) might be fine with the NPE, older players and more experienced gamers are not. I’m pretty sure the latter group is in the vast majority and so I have no clue why Anet thought the NPE would be a good idea…

Forum bug is awesome…

After getting a new account and trying to play on newer chars on my main one, I can say that, for me, the NPE is the second worst thing that has happened to gw2 (after the Fractured update).

How can anyone possibly see the reworked level-up “rewards” as rewards is beyond me, it’s just stuff that was previously available at level one but is now hidden behind levels. ANet literally removed access to game features, then made them alowly available again through level up, called it rewards and expect people to accept that. It’s ridiculous. Granted, there are some rewards that are actual rewards (dyes and mats and stuff like that, but too few to really matter).

The trait costs are insanely high. Of course you have the option to do some content and get them for free, but some of the chores are downright ridiculous (completion of an entire map for one trait?!) and they take a long time. So you either waste time or you waste cash to get something that was originally in the game for free. I am not really playing many of my alts outside of PvP because I refuse to pay for something that was free until not long ago and was changed for no good reason except to add a new gold sink.

Making a new account is one of the most demeaning experiences I have had so far in this game. The game downright treats you like a kitten. There is no tutorial where the mechanics can be explained, you just get very small bits every level up while playing. Granted, leveling up is very fast at the early levels, but when you are doing it having access to only one weapon skill and no utilities makes such a chore it’s incredible. Now, I have experience with the game and my frustration amounted to higher levels because of this, but even for fresh new players this must be infuriating, having your hand held like a helpless child.

Please change this ridiculous update and especially remove the trait costs.

Update. I continued the story as Priory, got to Claw Island, and both Tybalt AND Sieran are here.

What the actual f…

Update again: My final cutscene went from Sieran talking about sacrifice to Tybalt walking through and closing the gate. This is absurd.

Isscha.7639:

The only time I’ve gotten the “accept story progress” option is when you are both running the exact same story and you NEED the same story to continue.

Yes, but there are several cross order story’s.
From the level 42-47 storyline you get to choose between several races, wich one doesnt depend on your order but on your race.. So if a vigil and a whisperer human choose the skritt, they both go to Rat-Tastrophe. Eventhough dialogue and order npc with you differ, it is the same thing. If the vigil player start it and the whisperer player joins in, if he/she decides to accept the reward, it means he/she will change order to vigil.

Jeffrey,
This issue comes up often. I don’t believe it is a bug, but the message, specially before ‘Building the pact’ could be more clear for the story’s where this is an issue.
Maybe something for the todo list??

Geneaux.9547:

Shouldn’t this be stickied?

Looks to be a pretty important thread.

Of course not! How could Anet continue pretending that this thread doesn’t exist if it was stickied?

Shouldn’t this be stickied?

Looks to be a pretty important thread.

EdgarMTanaka.7291:

The trait system is the worst part of it the way that they’re now so expensive and a complete money pit compared to what they were in the beginning of the game. Originally it was ‘Unlock the book for each Tier at 30, 40, and 60 with some gold you save while leveling there’. Congrats!, you now have all your trails to deal with the game’s builds the way you want. Now it is “sink a lot of gold and 100’s of skill points into these and/or travel to random world places to do… bla bla… : Don’t forget that you actually can find all traits with no cost of Gold or skillpoint. Not even part of the NPE and there is a change comming to this! How many times do people have to say this!? There is a FIX comming to the trait system before the Expansion! There is a FIX comming to the trait system before the Expansion! There is a FIX comming to the trait system before the Expansion! To defend Anet’s choise in this was to make GW2 more like GW1 where you explored the world and found/unlocked your skills through Exploring. I think the idea is cool and the last set of Traits we got is realy neat to have like this but not all of them becouse it gives new characters too little choices. I have played through the game a few times more after the NPE now and well when I reach level 80 I have around 5 Traits unlocked from exploring the world while leveling. That’s way to few and well I could have run around look for them but some skills are locked behind timed events that rarely happens.

1. You can’t get all the traits without gold. Some of them are linked to events that have been bugged since launch.
2. ANET has not confirmed a date for the “fix” to the trait system. All they’ve said is that they’re going to do it, and they’ll release more information about it between now and the release of HoT. They haven’t said what the “fix” is going to be. They certainly haven’t said it’s going to happen before HoT.
3. Arguing that new players don’t have a problem with the NPE because they don’t know what they’re missing is a terrible argument.

Edit: Aww, Palador, you beat me to it. Well, I’m leaving mine for added emphasis.

EdgarMTanaka.7291:

Not even part of the NPE and there is a change comming to this! How many times do people have to say this!? There is a FIX comming to the trait system before the Expansion! There is a FIX comming to the trait system before the Expansion! There is a FIX comming to the trait system before the Expansion!

First of all, the trait system change WAS a part of the NPE. The first part. It was all changes made to the game for the China launch first, then translated back to the rest of the game.

Also, where have they said it will be before the Expansion? I’ve only seen them say a change is coming, not when in relation to the expansion.

Finally, is it really going to be a fix? Remember, these are the same people that thought the current trait system was a great idea and an improvement over the old one. You can’t say for sure it’s going to be a fix, or better in any way, without having details. Can you share those details, or are you giving ANet the benefit of the doubt here?

The removed or simplified content was not even the worst of the changes. The across-the-board nerf of everything below the 80th level turned this game into a sad parody of itself. Sure, let’s turn lvl 15 vets into trash mobs and trash mobs into… kitten , I don’t think we even have word for what those poor kittens are now.

Yeah, most of the NPE changes are just really bad. Sure, it might make the game slightly more accessibly to players who have 0 MMORPG experience. Nice.

But wouldn’t better explanations and training do that much better without massively cheapening the otherwise impressive feel of the world for players hailing from other games?

Miku.6297:

The only thing I would question about what you said is the PVP thing, what do you mean a new player can’t pvp. Can you no longer enter the mist portal in LA to go to the mist early?

OP says it doesn’t unlock until higher level, but PvP actually gets unlocked at lvl 3 which is roughly after doing your starter area and completing 1 heart in your starter zone. I think that’s not a big issue.
That the WvW screen is locked until level 18 (although you can enter the portals in garrison in LA) is just ludicrous. I posted a bug about it; because the message when you hover the WvW icon says ‘World vs. World. This feature is unlocked at level 18’ ; but how on earth is a newbie to know they can actually bypass this if they just head to the portals in garrison in LA.

There’s just so many headshakingly terrible decisions made with the NPE; and it used to be so good before with the freedom you had in what to do. And to be honest, the lack of freedom under the NPE doesn’t take away any confusion an inexperienced newbie might have anyway. I got a 2nd account and although I can’t “undo” my experience, it still felt like after the starter tutorial I was just dumped in the starting zone and didn’t know where to go.

The game didn’t need restrictions on what you can do, what you can achieve or unlock like the current NPE forces down your throat. It needed more visual clues at early levels to direct you to hearts, vistas, skill challenges, PvP, WvW, etc.

Miku.6297:

The trait system… was great, it’s now terrible, Traits are unlocked WAY to late. Honestly the gold sink or do certain tasks I don’t mind as much, but the level gate on each trait tier is just silly.

What, I thought it was normal to reach level 80 and only have 2 tier 1 traits -_-

I wasnt around when the NPE hit, but it didnt take long to realize it was utterly kittened. How Anet could get it from design, coding to implementation without anyone seeing the flaws is a mystery that boggles the mind. The extremely harsh trait, skill and gameplay limitations which makes the game completely unfun at all levels below 80 or the story missions which someone has arbitrarily flipped around to make no sense whatsoever, how was this even imagined?

The time and effort it must have taken is… well for lack of better words, horrifying.

And during all this no one at Anet has apparently been able to fix the visual glitch of the Claw Island story mission that consist of setting the Z axis of the leaving ship in the ending cinematics to +4 meters or so, something that’s glitched since the beta.

Most new players that I have seen that want to pvp right off the bat just ask in map. It usually seems to work.

Like I said I’m in no way a fan of the NPE, but saying they literally Can’t pvp is untrue. Yes: it’s not clearly explained by the NPE or in game instructions how to (that could definitely be improved), but it can be done.

Miku.6297:

Not going to defend the NPE because I’ll be honest I hate it :/ I really feel like it added nothing good, and removed alot of the freedom and exploration of the game at early levels.

The only thing I would question about what you said is the PVP thing, what do you mean a new player can’t pvp. Can you no longer enter the mist portal in LA to go to the mist early?

Oh, you probably can. But they cannot just click the UI tab and select “Enter the Mists” or “Queue for bla,bla, bla”.

What new, unguilded, unfamiliar player is going to enter the portal in LA, let alone know WHAT the portal is or even where it is? GW2 was touted that, beyond the tutorial, you could essentially PvP your entire game without ever stepping into PvE. Now? NPE happened and you must reach level 22 to do that or research that portal thingy that no new player knows of.

Not going to defend the NPE because I’ll be honest I hate it :/ I really feel like it added nothing good, and removed alot of the freedom and exploration of the game at early levels. The trait system… was great, it’s now terrible, Traits are unlocked WAY to late. Honestly the gold sink or do certain tasks I don’t mind as much, but the level gate on each trait tier is just silly.

The only thing I would question about what you said is the PVP thing, what do you mean a new player can’t pvp. Can you no longer enter the mist portal in LA to go to the mist early?