Guild Wars 2

The Feb 26, 2013 release notes state:
“- Eased the restrictions on global leash time.”

If that means the mobs will chase you for double the time/distance (that is my observation), then this is a very annoying change.

There are many places where mob density will not allow you to stop and recover any more because they chase you for a longer distance and you reach the next mob in the meantime. Many times I’m not interested in stopping to fight, just passing through. This should be a valid option. If you happen to cross a group which can disable you and damage you enough to burn your heal, you have to stop somewhere further to recover before meeting the next mob.

Please consider returning it to what it was before. If this was done to solve a particular problem, then that particular problem should be solved, not by changing a global variable which affects the whole game.

We are a 5-person guild (like Destiny’s Edge)

Do I understand it correctly that we have to spend 50,000 influence just to open up this stuff in one tree? And we can’t get the Guild Merits otherwise, so we can’t ever hope to buy anything that requires them?

50,000 influence would require about 1 year for us.

Habib Loew.6239:

Just a quick clarification. The formulas

wAPercent = wAScore / (wAScore + wBScore)
wAGlickoScore = (sin((wAPercent – 0.5) * Pi) + 1) * 0.5

make no assumptions about winners or losers. The first simply calculates a relative score percentage between the two teams involved. This is a number between 0.0 and 1.0. The second transforms the relative percentage into a Glicko 2 score using a sine wave which has the effect of making large score differentials have a less than linear impact on the Glicko 2 score (see the linked graph). The result is still in the range 0.0 to 1.0. Effectively this means that as score differentials get larger and larger the actual Glicko 2 score for a team approaches 0.0 or 1.0 more and more slowly.

We perform these operations pairwise on all the teams, so we are calculating 6 matches (two for each team) which fits the Glicko 2’s one-way nature. This is because the rating changes are asymmetric.

Because the ratings of two teams matter when calculating the results of a match (a lower rated team beating a higher rated team results in more change than a higher rated team beating a lower rated team) if two teams are very close in score then there is generally very little change in their ratings. Again, I encourage you to read the Glicko 2 website for a more thorough explanation of that part of the process.

Looking at that sine transform (instead of a 1:1 45° line), I get the following impression:
1) Anything lower than 0.5 is attenuated even further. Anything higher than 0.5 is amplified.
2) Anything in the middle moving up gets to move up faster. If moving down, it gets to drop down faster as well.
3) Once you’re really high or really low, there’s inertia that makes you stick to where you are. Anything really low will have a really hard time getting back up. Anything really high won’t drop appreciably unless pushed by a large amount.

Perhaps I’m missing something (because I’m not taking into account what the rest of the Glicko math does), but that’s not promoting dynamic changes at the extremes, but rather pushing the scores faster to one end and then helping them to stay there.

If I’m correct, the exact opposite would achieve dynamism at the edges. A curve that moves fast up at 0, then slows down in the middle, and accelerates again near 1. (Two exponentials which meet at 0.5, for example). Result: If you’re at the very top, you get slided down more easily. If you’re at the very bottom you can climb up more easily. If you’re in the middle you find it harder to get to an extreme, although movement is not hindered.

Am I missing something or does that sine wave really represent your intentions?

Opc.4718:

Enemies are already coloured according to their team colour if you haven’t noticed already.

That’s an option that you set. Since some people choose not to set it, the server still has to send color info today. I’m proposing to make the color “paint” the norm, if necessary, to reduce server and client load.

Opc.4718:

The colours are also assigned according to the server’s ranking, so introducing a 2nd set of colours may be confusing.

Precisely, hence my proposal to not set color by server ranking, at least not for the team you’re in, which will always be green, since your allies’ names are in green. Since the Enemy1’s names will be in red, all colors associated with them should be red, including their armor and map icons. And the same in violet for Enemy2. Who gets to be red and who violet is a detail, IMO. At least you can see immediately who you’re up against from their name color, from far away, and their armor colors when they come closer. The confusion you mention actually exists in today’s scheme, since you can be on the “red” team, while your enemies’ names all and indistiguishably appear in red.

Yes, this means “Green is First, Blue is Second and Red is Third” will no longer apply. But is that an issue?

A zerg of 24 picks up a roaming strider… “No, no… go away!”
“Ok, we’re here. Before we attack let’s do a headcount…”
/M Zerging Bay… DO NOT APPROACH!

How ridiculous.

The number should be set to 2+, 5+, 10+, 25+ with different symbols identifying the size. Give more info, rather than give it while hiding it. And refresh those sword positions every second, not every 10 secs.

And is that a “bad” thing?

There will always be limits. But the amount of information sent by the server about each enemy character can be reduced by not sending details of face customizations, tattoos, etc… We don’t really have the opportunity to see such details in the enemy. It can be further reduced by not sending any color information, and imposing the “enemy is painted red or violet” principle.

I believe the user should determine the limits of how many characters can be drawn, based on their observations. If necessary, the client can then inform the server of that limit in the hope that it will further lessen the load on the server.

Not having the most powerful PC around (although I do intend to get a better one soon), I and I suppose many others have experienced the extremely frustrating delays in making large enemy crowds visible before it’s too late. (I think it’s termed “culling”, i.e. the game’s client/server software/hardware’s incapacity to quickly draw a large number of fast moving players at a far enough distance).

I don’t want to blame neither the software nor the hardware of neither the servers nor the player PCs. The last update did slightly improve things for me: instead of seeing the hoard after I’m dead, I now see them about 1 sec before impact. But I do think there is a very easy and quick solution to this problem.

What we need to see from a far enough distance is really not a full rendering of enemies, but just their names in red. Text is a lot faster to draw. That will be sufficient to see how many and how far, and is a lot lesser of a load than rendering whole characters in 3D. However, we need to be able to see those red names from a greater distance than they currently show.

Today you can see a mob/character from far away, but their names only appear when they come a lot closer. How about doing it the other way around? Show us the red names at a distance of minimum 8000-10000 units, and let the rest of the character render at whatever speed the hardware can manage. That is not too big a distance since you can see trees/buildings/trebuchets that are at least that far away. Whatever the distance decided upon, it has to be reasonably large to give time to react, and realistic in terms of range of sight. After all, 10000 units can be crossed in about 10 secs with speed boosts. If you can see a zerg rushing in at you, you can at least decide whether you want to continue on a collision course or do something else.

Here is an additional request:
To make it clear who is fighting whom, the 2 enemy teams need to have names in different colors. I suggest the following:
- Our team: green
- Enemy1: red
- Enemy2: violet (sufficiently different from Enemy1)
Right now all you see is red-red-red-red. How many of each team are there, approximately? Are we being attacked by both enemies at the same time? Different enemy name colors will make it a lot clearer than having to actually read all those names one by one.

Corollary:
Team/Map/Icon/Tier Rank colors can also be changed to correspond to the above:
- Our team: always the green one (green camp/fort/… icons, green name text)
- Enemy1: red
- Enemy2: violet

I think the above changes make sense and will solve the culling problem while the clever brains at Anet look for a better solution to full character rendering of large groups at far enough distances.

Finally, I have a last request. Currently, we are shown a crossed-sword icon on the map when a battle or skirmish is taking place. However, there are 2 problems with that icon:
- It does not tell me who is fighting whom
- It does not refresh fast enough (only once every 10 sec AFAIK)

If we’re not supposed to know who is fighting whom from a large distance, then the crossed-sword icon should not be displayed at all unless one of our team is close enough to observe the battle. Since it has been deemed necessary to display it, then why not make it more useful? Drawing crossed swords of different colors can tell us who is fighting whom (red+violet swords or red+green, violet+green, red+violet+green). And updating the icon more frequently (once every second or two) will make the information a lot more useful. What harm can come from us all having more useful information?

Thank you for your attention.

Two things:
1) Implement a “handicap” system (as in golf)
2) Lock down the WvW servers at night (local time)

Being stampeded at night is not fun and reduces the numbers of night players further, worsening the stampede. Handicaps will help make for fairer/sportier matches.

PS:
And how about a 3-2-1 scoring? Winner gets 3, loser 1. Irrespective of their actual points. (Or 13-12-11, or 23-22-21… compress the the point spread… needs some thought and simulation.)

Down-scaling is essential in this game. It’s a major part of what makes it a novelty. I won’t discuss why, just how I think it should be accomplished. The result will be a slight, and I think tangible, difference for higher level characters who are scaled down.

As far as I can tell, stats come from mainly 4 sources:
- Automatic stat addition on level up
- Traits
- Buffs (food, etc…)
- Equipment

Stat improvements on level up follow a well-documented progression. When you get scaled down you should simply follow the curve down to the level you’re scaled down to. You therefore gain nothing from being higher level from this part. (Except that when scaled down, you’re scaled down to the max level of the zone you’re in and the mobs can/will be 0-2 levels lower than you).

Stats from traits should be scaled to your current level. This is currently not the case. When I add +1 to my level 43 char’s first trait he gets +10 power; my level 80 also gets +10 power. Since damage is proportional to power and inversely proportional to enemy defence, and since enemy defence increases with their level, those +10 power at level 43 are worth a lot more than +10 power at level 80. It means the character is being nerfed as they level up (for the same amount of power). This is compensated by having more trait points to spend at higher levels, so you can raise your power (or whatever other stat). Another way to handle this would be to scale what a +1 in traits would effectively give. For example, +10 power at level cap, and +5 power at half the cap. Being scaled down when visiting a low-level area would then simply imply following that curve back down to the scaled-down level. (Current downscaling of trait bonuses may be part of what seems to be complicating things.)
In terms of traits, therefore, a high level char downscaled to level 10 will have higher stats than a real level 10 because they have more trait points to spend.

Buffs from food etc. are then also scaled down, following the buff level curve (since being high level you can use higher level food which has higher level stat bonuses).

Lastly, equipment bonuses depend on both level and quality. We all know there are 6 curves: white, blue, green, yellow, orange, and now pink. Each of these curves has a slightly higher slope than the one before it. Equipment stats can then be downscaled again simply by sliding them down their curve. A level 80 with orange armor scaled down to level 10 would have the equivalent of a level 10 orange armor (which doesn’t exist). Better equipment will therefore also result in better stats when downscaled, compared to a char of that level.

The final result will be that higher level chars will have slightly better stats when scaled down, than a char of that level, because of traits, better quality equipment, and lastly a better choice/variety of skills to use. And, let’s not forget experience in playing their leveled up profession.

PS:
“Sliding down the curve to the current level” doesn’t mean multiplying the stat by a certain fraction, but setting the stat to that point on the relevant curve which corresponds to the target level. For example, a level 80 with level 65 yellow gear will end up with the same stats from equipment, when downscaled to level 10, as a level 80 with level 80 yellow gear, and a level 50 with level 35 yellow gear. What matters is the gear quality (curve) and that its level is higher than 10. (The fact that the level 50 has level 35 gear will penalize them when they’re in level 36+ areas, compared to the other two chars.)

goldenwing.8473:

Please consider reverting to something that actually requires a little effort.

I personally don’t associate “effort” with entertainment. If you want more effort you can create all the complications you need on your own. Don’t need them forced on all of us so you can feel satisfied, now, do we?

And btw, the example you gave, running up in LA to a place high enough to die when you jump, 10 times, is a lot more effort than simply standing in a place where some silly npc’s are trying to kill mosquitos and die instead.

Hehe, yes, it’s rubbish. Literally. Those “Unidentifiable Objects” are just junk. They go when you click the Sell Junk button. In a “Lost Orrian Jewelry Box”, title color ORANGE (implying there’s some orange jewelry in there), costing 4550 karma, I got 2 of those junk items, and 1 Taste of Liquid karma (which gives 1700 karma).

Just another grind that “doesn’t exist in this game”. Pity.

So, what happened after the patch? Do melee pets really hit moving targets now?

Ageed. Preview of all equipment, irrespective of class, has to be the norm.

I would even ask for a feature to be able to switch race and gender while previewing so as to be able to see all versions of the armor. This is very useful to keep in mind interesting items for my other characters.

It’s just a spear, most probably. The Preview doesn’t put you in water, unfortunately…

Indeed, previewing all types of gear, be it weapons or armor, and especially from the Trading Post, is extremely essential to game enjoyment. I use this feature constantly, in this and all other games I play. It’s enough we can’t inspect in this game.
Please fix this bug. Thank you.

The change only takes the camera back a little, thereby increasing the view both vertically and horizontally a little, and makes all objects proportionately smaller. No changes were made to camera positioning ability (angles where the camera can be).
The following picture shows the increased FoV and also shows approximately what can be seen without the switch. (As someone else mentioned, reflections on water are off with the increased view, as can be seen on the first picture’s reflection of the orange object being more to the right compared to normal).

It’s nice to be able to zoom back more, but what is annoying is the camera’s behavior in tight areas where objects force the camera to move with the player’s back obstructing the view. The best solutions for this issue involve keeping the camera where it should be, making it go through all obstacles, and making all obstacles in front of the camera transparent. I.e. the camera goes through the roof, through walls, and nothing can force it to change its angle or distance from the player. Except the player, of course.
After all, the camera is not the player. The player can’t go through obstacles, and as long as we aren’t, the camera should follow us at its designated distance and angle.

Don’t you need 150 trait points to unlock all traits? How is it possible to have them all unlocked?

BTW, is there a way to change your mind and reallocate all trait and skill points?

Thanks.