Guild Wars 2

Romek.4201:

most people whining now about are this people with 5+ bankingchars full with sprockets cause they think soon when scarlet end this will have some worth (rare than)

You obviously did not even bother to read a single one of the other posts explaining why this is a bad move by Arena Net. If you are going to argue with people then at least make the attempt to understand the issue they have with the pick.

Scarlet will be defeated in a few months and sprockets will go with her. The only way to obtain them will be the node, which is fine if you earned it. Other wise you need to purchase an item in the store, that in no way seems fair or morally right.

Second they are adding abilities to picks now, this essentially makes all other purchased harvesting tools inferior, that is in no way right as people purchased previous tools under the understanding that they would be the best obtainable. What next? In two months do we get an even better pick making this purchase pointless?

No, this is wrong on many levels and needs to be taken off the store or changed.

I am most definitely not okay with this, Arena Net needs to rethink what they have added.

Contrition.8945:

Conski Deshan.2057:

For my crazy example:
Lets say you could buy 5 additional trait points,
Or you can buy armour that gives an additional 10% damage reduction over any game-play obtainable set.

But it is all attainable via game-play (in game gold). Let’s say they simultaneously released the pick in the gem store, and on a new vendor for gold, and the price of the item on the vendor was set at the gold price for the same amount of gems.

Would that not be fair?

Would you also find it acceptable if Arena Net sold a unique Legendary with a bonus 10% damage that no other weapon in the game has?

This is the same situation and telling us you can still use gold hold no weight in this argument.

JeffHardisty.1926:

lordkrall.7241:

One solution they could provide is to start selling temporary picks with the same ability in-game. That would make this whole situation better and would mean these picks won’t offer anything not available in the game.

This sounds like a good solution. I hope they read it.

It could potentially fix one issue but not others.

I bought the molten pick, now this pick comes along and makes my old purchase essentially inferior. What is to say that if I bought the new pick they would not do it again and in a few months release another that has even better abilities.

This pick has cause many issues, for those that use the store and those that do not. Arena Net is pushing the store too far and needs to rethink this item and what it includes in the future.

Cush.4063:

You can trade gold for gems thus you don’t have to pay anything thus it isn’t pay to win….

Its not pay to win when you can trade for gems. It really isn’t.

Can you obtain it without the gem store? No.

Does it provide an advantage over items obtainable from regular play? Yes.

It crosses a line that Arena Net themselves set, telling people just trade gold is not an acceptable defense in any way.

For a start, what are the abilities of the other BL harvesting tools? If you are going to release a new tool every other month that is slightly better than the previous, then I must ask, where does this stop?

The whole idea of this harvesting tool goes against what Arena Net previously said, BL will only sell convenience items and aesthetics. No other harvesting tool that can be obtained in the game through normal means can do this and the sprocket node will no longer be obtainable after the Origin of Madness. This does give a substantial advantage over other players by providing a supply of an uncommon resource not normally obtainable through playing.

Two ways to fix this, give all BL harvesting items similar abilities and secondly provide a new line of vendor harvesting tools with limited durability in game that have a similar function.

I am not liking the direction taken by Arena Net here, they made a promise to us and should not be pushing to test our limits.

Because… things!

She is the weak thread Arena Net uses to tie every unrelated piece of content together. Do not expect the reasons to make much sense, Arena Nets Living Story writers have not exactly excelled in story telling so far.

So forcing more Scarlet content into where it does not belong. -sigh-

I can not wait till she is dead and gone, she is literally like some sort of disgusting infection constantly spreading. I am glad we only have a handful of updates left with her, I warn you Arena Net if she is in so much as one story after her story arc is meant to be closed I will -never- forgive you.

Well, I think I should give my feedback after playing for a week. In all the idea behind the marionette is good and functions well enough but several things hold it back.

Firstly it is not immediately apparent that the event is in any way rewarding, it takes a while to get the power core and killing endless mobs without a drop is frustrating. Yes Scarlets boxes are very rewarding in the end, but removing drops entirely is not a good approach. I would have rather had less mobs with normal loot with an end chest and only one Scarlet lair chest. It would have satisfied the here and now as well as felt rewarding for completion. What I did quite like was that the end loot bag scales to performance.

Next, when we have a large event with a hundred people, not should suffer due to just a handful being unable to hold their own, it is unfair to the majority. If we are all forced to play together then the conditions should be more lenient and one group should not hold back the rest. The very premise of this creates a feeling on animosity to fellow players rather than supportive group playing, which is essentially Guild Wars 2 core value. We should be actively helping each other, not forcibly placed in a situation to potentially hold each other back. What I did like was being split up to work in smaller groups, less lag and more tactical, I like that.

Time gated content, yes I understand we can not have the marionette attack all the time, but time gated content is no fun to wait for. What we really need is something do to with the living story while we wait. Yes we have the Wurm, but that is elite content and I am speaking as a casual player. Not much is needed, just something small to keep us occupied for an while in the same zone. Could have been a champion train with Scarlets minions attacking, some sort of mini game, who knows. But it would have been great to have something to occupy us.

Lastly instant kills, instant killing is not casual friendly. If you want to take everyone down that is fine, but it should always be to a downed state, not death. No matter the game be it traps, hits or any mechanics that instantly kill is fundamentally bad. Such tactics remove a sense of control from the player and lowers the skill required. I essentially see insta kills as a trollish device used by game developers to unfairly punish or artificially raise difficulty, Super Adventure box world 2 normal mode had an abundance of these and if memory serves they were not received well then either. I would not be shocked to learn that it was the same team that made this, regardless please at least rethink doing this in the future.

After a few days I started to like many aspects about the update, but these handful of things really do hold it back from being a truly great update in my opinion.

Almost every time I did the event most people treated each other with respect and were supportive/cheering rather than condescending or hateful. Even on the rare occasion we suffered a fail people were still great sports about it.

I am on Piken Square, in case you are wondering.

I have to say I agree, usually the story does not interest me, the characters bland and overall story uninteresting. But this time Arena Net have definitely improved things, I found myself read things far more and paying attention to what character say and do. Even after the Scarlet instance I found myself speculating on what she might be doing.

By no means is it perfect but it is a marked improvement over what we usually get. So long as Arena Net continue to improve on this then I hold higher hopes for the living story we get in the future.

We need pollymock for our mini pets, we have an arena in Lions Arch already!

Hmm, the topic title is missing a “has not” after TTS.

The wurm is not great to be honest, a lot of work for zero pay off.

Seems almost obvious to me, Scarlet hates a specific dragon according to the diary she wrote. Thumpers are used to discern location of dragon (Diagram in lair points to this) who is likely Primordius (Fire rising you cannot contain). Marionette UFO is a giant drill (Diagram of this in the lair) and she plans to dig at the location and lower down her robot to kill the dragon. Judging by the map the location is Lions Arch.

A lot of people have crazy theories involving pale tree, bubbles and so on, but I really do not see the story being too convoluted. Still it is sometimes great to read what others think about the situation.

One thing Arena Net have done right this time is that the story has had a push in the right direction.

I for one am tired of the laggy zerg ridden gameplay that comes with much of the living story. It would be great to have some small group events for a change but considering the next few updates are to do with Scarlet we are nearly guaranteed to get zerg events.

Disgustingly cute to the point of being almost creepy, what happened to the vicious looking underground race we knew from GW1?

We have not had a decent asura since Tonn, instead of an asura modeled after Vekk we end up with a disappointing slightly more annoying mini Zojja.

The living story really was needing yet -another- female hero.

Lots of mobs with zero loot and no guaranteed pay off after an hour of hard work and perhaps several hours wait.

That is the definition of soul crushing, you can not expect people to do any of that without a reward. The fact that they even had the idea to do this proves the designers do not play their own content.

Good list Shanaeri Rynale. Though I would also add generally better story telling to the positive list due to the story instance. Also lack of rewards from mobs and general unrewarding content to the negative, due to the countless champion/elite mobs that drop nothing and the fact you get zero reward if you work hard but your server failed anyway.

I loved the idea behind the story instance with all the characters chatting, to show each characters relationship and where they stand in the story.

It is always great to see Rytlock and Logan, just a shame they completely blanked each other as I like their dynamic. The new Asua seems a bit bland and almost sickeningly cute, what happened to the Vekk types?

I know we all said we wanted the lore in game and not on the website, but the Scarlet scribe is a fairly rubbish way of doing it. Go on. Go on. Go on.

Have to say I am a bit annoyed with the amount of meaningless dialogue to do with Kasmeer, it has nothing to do with the story and only makes me dislike her character more. The scene was so badly written and conceived, an obvious attempt to try and pull at the heart strings of players. It is blatant attempt to try and get characters attached to her before she is shuffled off this mortal coil, which no doubt is imminent. The money for voice acting could have been better spent actually giving us decent story with meaning rather than a background filler several months too late for a character about to die in a few weeks.

In all, good idea but needs work.

starwatto.4527:

As some more constructive players (“This is the worst patch.” isn’t a real argument)

You are 100% right “This is the worst patch” is not an argument, it is not an argument at all. In fact it is a statement of personal opinion not designed to convince anyone but to inform others that they are -personally- displeased.

Soulstar.7812:

Yes, you are the only one.

This is the worst patch. Truly it is. I played since day one.

I have to agree here, this is probably the worst content I have experienced to date, not a great sign for the remainder of the Scarlet arc.

Guess I will just go off and do normal stuff, much more fun and a million times more rewarding.

I lost count of the number of champions and elite mobs I had to kill and I have nothing to show for it.

Seriously unless it is story driven, content without reward is effectively pointless, not a good design choice with Arena Net. I thought they would have learned from Tequatil instead they took all the bad aspects and made them worse.

Calling it now, in two months the zone will be essentially a ghost town on almost every server.

Halex.7385:

Hey everyone, I feel like GW2 needs a new race. I was wondering what you all think, and what would be a good race for them to make. (If it would ever happen) I personally think that a half elf would be cool (half human half elf) what are your thoughts?

Well, first they would have to add Elves, you do know it is Guild Wars you are playing, right?

Personally I want Tengu, I am eager to make an Avicara Brave.

Lilith Ajit.6173:

The new Asura is a female golemancer obsessed with Scarlet.

Well, I guess the writer who created Scarlet was so upset that no one liked the character they decided to write a fictional fan for the twig instead.

Seriously though we do not need another Zojja.

Shiren.9532:

You know, cause the Living Story was really lacking in female heroes.

Was my thoughts exactly.

You are onto something, a descendant of Vekk is the type of character absolutely everyone would instantly fall in love with and become the favorite of Destiny’s Edge 2.0.

Unfortunately that would be too good for the living story, we are more likely to get a descendant of Oggy.

Coming to a gem store near you!

It better be a grumpy Asuran genius level inventor, every living story character to date is unlikable or an idiot. Also the Destiny’s Edge 2.0 is already packed with female power another male is needed to level the field slightly.

Judging by what the writing team has given us so far I am not optimistic. It will be likely a ditzy female asuran magic user and her comic relief golem companion.

Canach was not a good villain, as an ally in Destinys Edge 2.0? I think I would be quite fine with that, he is a flawed character and would give the group and interesting dynamic.

If you are not a huge fan of Scarlet or world bosses then this update seems to likely be quite a disappointment.

Personally I have little interest in the world bosses, they are never worth while killing and the lag fest zergs is not much fun to play in. As for Scarlet, they should have dropped her rubbish character and story arc months ago.

Not a great start to the new year Arena Net, still perhaps the next few updates will be better.

Vanthian.9267:

chemiclord.3978:

horror.

It does and most likely will affect you.

The day the next living story can only be played by Tier 15 VIP members or higher. Much like only people with a pass can get into the Divinities Reach Noble area.

Edit: [The remainder of this message can only be viewed by those who are of Tier 10 or higher within our VIP services.]

Point well made.

chemiclord.3978:

Yeah, funny how I really don’t care about changes if they don’t impact me. It’s so much healthier to get bent out of shape about every little change to what other people do.

You get bent out of shape more than I do, hence your many replies.

chemiclord.3978:

Aedelric.1287:

So one can assume this is a test for the Asia region.

My fears have been relieved slightly, though a straight out statement like “No VIP or subscription plans” would make feel much better.

So you don’t buy it if you don’t like it.

Why does it matter to you if someone else does?

I don’t get that thinking at all.

The game was advertised as subscription free, it matters a great deal.

I do not get your way of thinking at all, so docile

As you asked for feeback Bobby I thought I would give you some, mainly about SAB. To this day I love SAB the original release, very reminiscent of Zelda Ocarina of Time and other games I love.

However the learning curve and overall difficulty of world 2 was too steep. The larger levels was nice but without a checkpoint to return to at a later date makes it so you can only play it if you have plenty of free time. Another thing, insta kills during normal play is not fun, have the traps and falling off the world remove hearts instead of killing you, that would be much more casual friendly.

I would essentially like to see all the troll mechanics left in tribulation mode. Platforms that require you to hover with one foot off the edge should be widened for two feet and jumps that require you to glitch your way up should not be required and rethought. As for rewards you need some outside SAB incentive to play, karma, gold, materials (not bloodstone dust) something of value beyond cosmetic or SAB use only.

I am fine for people wanting harder content, just do not subject the rest of us to it. Make tribulation mode 2 or something, just do not give them additional rewards for it.

As for other Living Story things, I want another council vote, it is time Evon got his rightful place. The Bazzar should come back but do not make it a repeat like you did with the disappointing Wintersday. Lastly I want to see the Consortium come back exploiting some other region/people.

Martin Kerstein.3071:

We just wanted to respond to the image that has been data-mined from the Edge of the Mists testing branch.

This is a testing branch. We conduct internal experiments for various territories on our testing branches. This particular experiment is not being tested for the West.

As always, keep in mind that we test a lot more than we ship, so data-mining is no guarantee of anything. If we have announcements to make about future content, we’ll make them through the usual official channels.

So one can assume this is a test for the Asia region.

My fears have been relieved slightly, though a straight out statement like “No VIP or subscription plans” would make feel much better.

Kain Francois.4328:

Settle down, Skritt!

How do we know it isn’t some lame, lame, limited+consumable buff, like the “Collector’s Edition” and “Digital Deluxe”? How many people use Mistfire Wolf?

Calm down little Quaggan.

How do we know it isn’t a subscription fee? The fact that it is unknown is irrelevant as we should still give feedback on what we want and do not want to avoid Arena Net making mistakes.

Kaleban.9834:

Snip…

I agree, Scarlet is not cutting it. But we only have a few more updates with her and what is supposed to come after is meant to be worth the wait.

I say exercise patience.

imsoenthused.1634:

“I don’t have any complaints, so anybody else’s complaints are false or have no relevance, and you all are bad people/spoiled children for voicing them.”

^I made a TLDR for you OP

Thanks, save me quite the read.

Creeper.9360:

seems kind of a like an april fools joke item

Doubtful, not only is April nearly three months away but this was caught inside the game code. Their is no precedence for this kind of joke, Arena Net simply do not make April Fools jokes like this, apart from that to joke with the player base in this way is in bad taste.

Tozen.9814:

I think everyone is a little too worried about this. ArenaNet has made some poor decisions in the past in my opinion, but they’ve never done anything to deliberately screw over the playerbase in an attempt to make more money. If they tick everyone off, they’ll lose profits, and it’s clear that the devs are pretty passionate gamers too.

The fact that they have made some poor decisions in the past is the reason why people are so worried and getting up in arms.

It is up to the playerbase to keep Arena Net on track, if they did not have players giving them feedback then they would not know what they are doing right or wrong.

Yes Guild Wars 2 is a lot of fun, it has some fantastic moments.

Trail blazing across Southsun and setting up outposts.

Super Adventure Box world 1.

Travelling up to Zephyr Sanctum for the first time.

First Wintersday & Halloween.

Guild Wars has some exceptional and memorable moments just from the living story alone and judging from that we will likely have many more to come.

But I guess your definition of fun is different to mine Kaleban. When you say fun you talk about loot drops and class balance, if that is all that is fun to you then you might as well be playing a spreadsheet.

killcannon.2576:

Aedelric.1287:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/

“no subscription fees!”

They add this, then I am getting my money back. VIP membership is a subscription model.

Hybrid, not subscription.

Hybrid has subscription, you mean I should change the word model to fee, do not be pedantic. This does not change the point I made or argument against VIP membership.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/

“no subscription fees!”

They add this, then I am getting my money back. VIP membership is a subscription model.

Arena Net needs to debunk this rumour as soon as possible.

Scoundrel.2139:

whoever did that voiceover needs to stick to the Under-7s Storytime. Honestly, there was no sense of urgency, danger, intrigue or climax.

That is because he is Sylvari, it is supposed to sound like that because they are all emotionally kittened. Do not blame the voice actor, blame the choice of character Arena Net selected him to vocalize.

khani.4786:

A guildmate of mine found this awesome recap of the living story…..why isn’t this on their official youtube channel?

-removed link-

If you checked you would have found out that it is.

http://www.youtube.com/user/arenanetofficial/videos

Agreed, quite disappointing.

Bah Humbug to you too Arena Net!

Longer between living story installments is exactly what I wanted, strictly under the understanding that the content would be better quality and with more quantity.

I am only annoyed that this Christmas content was severely lacking, hardly anything new, not rewarding enough and no where near enough things to do to last one week let alone nearly two months.

Still, I am optimistic for next year, so long as we have no more Scarlet rubbish.

All your hard earned gold is going straight into the pockets of the Minstrel and Consortium, just listen to what the characters say.

You are all being played for suckers, not only by Arena Net for wasting your gold but by the characters in the game. I checked the orphanage in my personal instance, it does not look any more full than usual.

Also, Bah! Humbug!