Guild Wars 2

I’m feeling a little frustrated that I have to earn yet more XP to even start unlocking this track. I’ve been playing for three years!

I have plenty of mastery points sitting around unused that I can put toward it because those did convert, I’m just not allowed to start it yet.

I get that this is supposed to be something that’s earned, but I don’t think the effort we’ve already put into the game is being sufficiently taken into account by gating it behind earning more XP regardless of how much progress we started with.

I don’t have an issue per se with some mastery gating of the story steps. It makes sense in-character that you have to gain knowledge to progress, and out-of-character it helps with the pacing so we can’t just blow straight through the content and our gains took some effort.

That said, I feel like the amount of XP required to progress is not tuned right. The time spent earning the right to progress is too long, and XP gains feel too slow. My preference would be that for a moderate-length play session (say, an hour) I have the opportunity to advance the story at least once. I also feel that mastery point gain and XP gain need to be scaled to each other better – currently I’m sitting on several mastery points I’ve earned but I’m not allowed to use, which is kind of frustrating and makes my progress feel slower.

I’m fine with optional skills taking more time to acquire, but for me the completion time to advance the story is a bit too much and needs to be downward adjusted a bit.

The hotfix resolved my issue, thanks.

I’m having the same problem some other players are reporting with the prologue: I’ve talked to Taimi and Canach and my next step is to go to the rally point, and as soon as I reach the green star the UI disappears and the game appears to be going into a cutscene. I still hear sounds (animal noises?) but the image on the screen is frozen. The cinematic never starts (I gave it a significant amount of time in case it was just slow,) my computer reports that the client has stopped responding, and I have to close it via task manager.

This has happened four times at the same point, and I am unable to progress beyond it.

I’m not concerned, because the way I see it, the outcome is the same either way: you won’t end up with a precursor you get to keep.

If I know I’m not going to end up with one to keep either way, I may as well have the fun of trying out the new profession instead of giving up the opportunity.

A precursor is off the table whichever you do, so why throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater?

Will the names we use for our Revenants be reserved in any way when the beta weekend ends? Or will it all go back up for grabs afterward? Thanks!

kaat.8237:

It’s funny. No one really complained much that they missed parts of Season One because they couldn’t play during the time it was available, aside from the one-off world changing event disasters. It’s gone. Can’t access it any more. Now, LS Season Two is available ALL THE TIME and people are complaining. Some folks would rather miss stuff completely than have the OPTION of getting the content at a later time. And they don’t even have to pay for it other than in a little time to get the gold to get gems.

Yeah, I much prefer the way Season Two was released. I missed a ton of Season One because I was busy, and then I got so behind I didn’t understand what was going on even when I did get to play, so there wasn’t much motivation to even try it.

I haven’t missed out on a single episode of Season Two even though I don’t have any more free time than I did last year. Not having to play during a set window of time makes all the difference. I just log in and grab the episode when it’s available, then play it when I can.

It’s also nice to have the gem store as a backup if for whatever reason I couldn’t get logged in during that time window. (Which didn’t actually happen for me during Season Two.) I see that as a benefit, not a bad thing.

Photonman.6241:

…but I feel like a lot of people don’t have legitimate problems to escape from. They choose to escape mundane problems and that’s not healthy.
But hey, maybe I’m just a hater : /

I completely disagree. Mundane problems count too. You don’t have to have it worse than everyone else in the world to legitimately need a break from the stuff you are dealing with.

Obviously this can be taken too far. If it has gotten to the point where game time is preventing you from fulfilling real life responsibilities or forming outside relationships, it has become unhealthy.

That’s the extreme case, though. Most of the time it’s healthy to take breaks with activities that take our focus off our stressors for awhile.

I would think it’s probably a slightly different story (maybe a different intro?) or different dialog responses by the NPCs to your characters. That would be cool, so I’ll definitely try to have a Sylvari alt leveled up as well as my main.

I can’t imagine it’s anything catastrophic like no more Sylvari can be made after that, or I think it would be worded more strongly than just it would be a fun idea to have one.

I’m busy too, but logging in once every two weeks literally only takes as much time as a couple of mouse clicks to secure the content for when I do have time to play.

I think it has been a success overall. There have been some hits and misses, but it seems like ANet is learning from the misses and there has been a lot of improvement in the living story. I’m happy with it, though it isn’t perfect.

Zenith.6403:

Anakita Snakecharm.4360:

I don’t think everything has to have some deep didactic purpose. There’s nothing wrong with taking some time to decompress and relax your brain. I use the game to relieve stress, and relieving stress is healthy.

- Fair enough. But is it relaxing though? My experience of logging into game has been that the game gives me laundry list of tasks that I should be doing. I think fun things are those that are spontaneous, the opposite of goal-oriented and organized behavior.

I believe the answer to that is entirely a matter of personal taste.

The Scarlet storyline was not my favorite and I’m not especially fond of the character, but trying to retcon her out of the story after the fact wouldn’t make sense. It would create more plotholes than it would fix.

As time passes and we get further away from that storyline, I think mentions of it will just naturally diminish and the problem of new player confusion will solve itself. It’ll become just one backstory element that not everything new hinges on.

Zenith.6403:

jheryn.8390:

As far as the grandchildren reference, why do you play games at all if that is going to be your legacy? No game you play today will exist when your grandchildren come along. What would be the difference between telling your grandchildren what you said above and saying, “Well, I had the most amazing experience playing a game that doesn’t exist now and you have never heard of.” Either way, your grandchild will not care. So by your measure, no one should play games at all. Yet, you obviously are.

- There are games whose goal is to waste your time, and there are games that offer an experience. I can see how someone who picks up a game like Civilization would utilize it’s gameplay to cultivate curiosity of history and politics. I can see how chess players would transfer their analytical skills to other tasks in life. Playing a role in a game with actual story could help to appreciate different viewpoints to life. Even first person shooters are said to develop hand-eye coordination and perception.

What does this teach? Turn your brain off, join the zerg, beat the bad guy and collect your RNG loot. Gives you a rush to see rare item drop. Rinse and repeat.

I don’t think everything has to have some deep didactic purpose. There’s nothing wrong with taking some time to decompress and relax your brain. I use the game to relieve stress, and relieving stress is healthy.

This happened in GW1 too. Keiran Thackeray started out as a Ranger and became a Paragon through story events. It was never offered as an option for PCs even so.

I think it’s an example of gameplay/story segregation and doesn’t indicate a new mechanic for player characters.

AivenPrimus.9184:

Seems like a lot of people have no sense of value…
Ready to pay 30EUR and more for a EXPANSION that ’’would’’ cost as much as a base game…?

On the contrary – based on the amount of time I will spend playing and the amount of enjoyment I will get from it, Guild Wars products are a very good value for my entertainment dollars.

To me it’s less relevant to compare it to the cost of the base game (which I already paid for, so its price does not directly affect the current transaction) than to compare it to other ways I could spend that part of my entertainment budget (which is the choice I actually have now versus the choice I had in 2012.) Based on entertainment value, the expansion comes out as a worthwhile way to spend my discretionary money even at a somewhat higher price point.

I would be very surprised if they didn’t let Revenants use tomes. It seems pretty silly to permanently cripple the leveling capability of the class and deny equal participation rewards (bearing in mind how dailies and monthlies are structured now, plus PvP rewards) just to ensure nobody gets a slight head start on launch day. It just… doesn’t seem reasonable or likely to me that they would set that kind of restriction based on cost/benefit analysis.

Conncept.7638:

I don’t know, I was wondering this during the stream, prior to any rumor. At one point Colin (or whichever dev was up there, I don’t which devs are which…) stated specifically that everyone would be start on equal footing with the Revenant and level up. It kind of sounded like he was hinting at level scrolls not working.

I just took that to mean Revenant wouldn’t start at level 80. Equal footing wouldn’t mean Revenant was more difficult to level up, it would mean it was the same.

I don’t really have a dealbreaker price point. Obviously it’s going to have to be relatively reasonable – they aren’t going to set the price so high no one is going to pay it, so I can’t imagine it’ll be anything crazy.

I’m pretty careful with my finances in general and my gaming budget in particular. As a result, I have enough margin that it’s not a big deal to splurge a bit when there’s a product I’m really excited for.

I’m excited for this expansion, so I’ll pay what it costs.

My main will still be my main (human Ranger) but I’d like to at least try out a Revenant character. I can’t fault others for doing the same.

There was a season finale, so I think it’s reasonable to assume it’s over.

My human Ranger, who has been my main since launch.

Penguin.5197:

Why has no one mentioned forgal or even tybalt yet??

Both have been requested in this thread, actually.

I’m rooting for Forgal, personally.

olTThreelo.6710:

I’m guessing these “Take my money” people actually mean, “Take my parents money”, because any adult, discerning gamer knows that our total lack of patience when it comes to new games is filling our hard drives with incomplete, over-hyped garbage.

I have confidence this expansion will be great because Guild Wars 2 is greatness, but “Shut up and take my money” really doesn’t need to become a thing.

It’s a joke. It just means the person is excited about the product.

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/shut-up-and-take-my-money

MrPersons.1560:

it says on the page somewhere that they will announce more details later, maybe that means they may add new races closer to release? Wouldn’t get my hopes up, but I really wanted tengu or kodan to be playable race too

Oh well, everything else seems awesome

Unfortunately I think that is unlikely. If the expansion was going to feature a new race, that would be a major selling point, not just something to toss into their publicity at the last minute. I would think if there was any plan to include one, the announcement would at least hint at it because they’d want to hype it as much as possible.

Forgal Kernsson. I still miss that guy.

I would really appreciate this feature! People who wanted to keep their skill points on a high level character still could, but it would be great to have the option of passing them on to alts if that would be more useful to the player.

My wallet is ready!

Very excited about this!

I was hoping for that too. I went to the Media section to download one and there wasn’t one. Would be awesome if we could get one!

It would have been fun if it had happened, but it’s not that big of a deal to me that it sounds like it isn’t happening.

Goomba.6248:

Anakita Snakecharm.4360:

More of a request than a question: Could we get one of those pretty watercolor-looking desktop backgrounds for Heart of Thorns like there have been for other releases? I’m ready to jump on the hype train.

https://heartofthorns.guildwars2.com/en#section-media

Those are nice, thank you, but I meant one of the concept art ones with a logo.

Neilos Tyrhanos.5427:

I was always going to buy anything that offered more Guild Wars, tbh. I would have bought it without any details at all.

This expansion does offer a number of things I’ve been wanting for a while, though.

Same. I enjoy the game a lot, so my response to getting an expansion at all was pretty much “open wallet and dump contents in ANet’s hand”.

That said, there are several things in this particular expansion I’m excited about.

More of a request than a question: Could we get one of those pretty watercolor-looking desktop backgrounds for Heart of Thorns like there have been for other releases? I’m ready to jump on the hype train.

Living story would be on hiatus anyway (we just had a season finale) so I’m guessing we will not be back to episodes before the expansion is released. There may be other small content releases in the meantime.

Rognik.2579:

Maybe they found a duplicate or jumped in before the passage sealed behind her.

I was assuming the latter. When the PC opens the doorway, the NPCs get through it too even though they don’t have their own torches. I think Caithe and Faolain were in close enough proximity that they were able to make it through before it shut.

Zaxares.5419:

In their militaristic society, completing the objective is the most important thing. No matter the cost, no matter the casualties. Failure is worse than death to them. Rox wanted to join a warband that often, due to the nature of war, has to make some extremely tough decisions, and Rytlock was only treating Rox as she would be expected to behave should she join them.

That seems all the more reason Rytlock should approve of Rox’s choice, though. A military is more than just a large number of individual soldiers; a military has to be able to act as a cohesive fighting force in times of crisis.

Rox chose the option that minimized casualties and maximized the chances of the group achieving the objective. It seems like that should be something that someone from a military culture would value more highly than individual showboating, not less.

If an expansion included a complete story arc for all races, a new playable race could simply pick up at that point after a few intro missions. There’s no reason they would have to be retroactively included in all the old content.

Frankly, it might be desirable for them not to be, so players could just get on with it rather than doing the Zhaitan story a 16th time with a new alt just because a new race has been released. It kind of kills the excitement momentum of having something new to have to repeat something that has been available for years before accessing the new content.

ANet can always, as was suggested, do “historical reenactment” missions for those who want to see everything, as they did when they added campaigns to GW1.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Anakita Snakecharm.4360:

Trahearne is not a character I particularly like, but I’d rather see him fade into the background of the story than be killed off. That just seems kind of unnecessary. He could just retire to Orr and focus on fulfilling the Pact goals there rather than personally leading the charge against every dragon.

He can’t do it now though or that’s just as much character as- . . . murder . . . as actually killing him off.

I don’t see why. Trahearne has consistently acknowledged he’s a scholar first and foremost, not a fighter. It seems to me like the better part of valor for him to focus on what he knows best, and let someone else take on a role he’s admittedly not well suited for. Trahearne would probably be of more use to the Pact finding ways to fix the aftermath in Orr than leading battles.

Trahearne is not a character I particularly like, but I’d rather see him fade into the background of the story than be killed off. That just seems kind of unnecessary. He could just retire to Orr and focus on fulfilling the Pact goals there rather than personally leading the charge against every dragon.

Ronin.7381:

There’s one left that we know of. I don’t recall lore anywhere stating that the Golden City within the Isles of Janthir too fell apart after Guild Wars: Beyond – War in Kryta. But I’m bias, I loved the Mursaat so seeing them come back would be pretty kitten awesome.

I’d love to see the Mursaat come back, too. Just not as a playable race, because that would make them commonplace and I’d rather them not become that.

My human Ranger has a message for the Sylvari…

Devildoc.6721:

We also don’t know if Sylvari are assembled in parts, or grow as other life does by cell division.

Maybe that should be an experiment to determine their personhood status.

Frankly I don’t see why it matters, aside from curiosity. If they show every other mark of sentience, what difference does it make if they were assembled or grew from cell division? It seems like about the most arbitrary standard possible.

Devildoc.6721:

As Vorpp said before, he experimented on the Sylvari because they were an anomaly. IE they’re not like other sentient beings, which are born as children and grow into adulthood and then have children of their own.

I think that using maturation and reproduction as the markers of personhood is a problematic standard.

Devildoc.6721:

When their entire existence is to serve a dragon as constructed dragon minions, they’re not people.

On the contrary, the Sylvari are demonstrably able to have an autonomous existence, thought, and emotion. The fact that certain circumstances (which we are not sure yet the exact nature of) appear to be able to override their autonomy does not reduce them to mere objects.

I can’t see Mursaat becoming a player race. They’d either be ridiculously overpowered or (more likely) be downgraded to a more reasonable power level for a PC, which would make them much less interesting than they are now.

It would also diminish my interest in them if they were suddenly all over the place doing totally mundane things.

Sylvari are clearly sentient and capable of feeling pain. The fact that someone lacks free will in certain situations does not diminish their personhood or mean they can be tortured with no moral issue.

Ayrilana.1396:

Anakita Snakecharm.4360:

adormtil.1605:

There is only 3 things you have to do avoid the red and orange circles, kill the shadows and kill the vines.

And if Rox constantly fires her arrows right into the middle of the red and orange circles…?

You wait until it’s clear to walk.

Which may mean you lose at least one of the fires you lit, and/or you may be dodging something else by the time the way is clear. This is particularly the case if the majority of Rox’s arrows are landing in unsafe areas.

I’m not saying it’s impossible. I completed it. I’m just saying it’s a little more complicated than just avoiding the circles.

adormtil.1605:

There is only 3 things you have to do avoid the red and orange circles, kill the shadows and kill the vines.

And if Rox constantly fires her arrows right into the middle of the red and orange circles…?

I did this fight a couple of times, and for me the major issues with were inadequate clues about the shadows, Rox’s unpredictable AI, and the excessive use of the knockdown mechanic.

The first time I did the fight, I ended up quitting and looking online for what to do because it seemed impossible to light more than 3/4 fires at a time solo. It was only reading the forum that I realized the shadow creatures could actually be killed. I’d tried attacking them and got messages that they were invulnerable, and there isn’t time in such a frenetic fight to try all sorts of different combinations and see what works.

I also found their vulnerability to divine fire counterintuitive because they were snuffing out the fires. It wouldn’t have occurred to me that their weakness would be the thing they seemed able to destroy effortlessly. After I read about them online I didn’t have any trouble with them, but I think they should have been clued better within the game itself.

Even after I figured out the fight mechanics, I still had trouble with Rox. There were a couple of times when I could have ended the stage of the fight but I was just standing around waiting for Rox to shoot me an arrow, and by the time she did, one of my fire points had been snuffed and needed to be redone. It’s only a matter of a few seconds, but when things are happening so fast a few seconds are are the difference between success and failure. There were also many times when she would shoot her arrow straight into the middle of an impossible amount of AOE and I couldn’t get to it. I’m not sure if she’s intended to be a bit of a hindrance or if the fight scripting was a bit off, but it was frustrating to know what to do but be unable to do it because the NPC wasn’t fully cooperating.

The last part is just personal taste, but I found the endless cycle of knockdowns annoying. It’s probably my least favorite mechanic because just trying to get your character up off the ground is the opposite of fun and heroic, and this fight had that in spades. I’d rather have the time I spend struggling to get my character to her feet be minimal, not to get stuck in an endless cycle of it till I die if I make a misstep. This is especially the case since there’s very little opportunity to rally if you’re downed in this particular fight, so the downed state just prolonged the ordeal and added to the frustration of being in an unrecoverable position.

Like I said, I succeeded. It was doable. I just hope some feedback from players for this fight will be taken into account when planning future boss encounters.

CureForLiving.5360:

Anakita Snakecharm.4360:

I do wish in general we had more control over how forgiving our characters are toward the NPCs. My character would forgive Caithe, but she would also have forgiven Canach a long time ago and it feels strange every time the dialog forces her to give him a hard time.

It could be as simple as having a couple of different unvoiced dialog options to choose from so we could pick our tone.

I’m not sure if there’s a technical limit to how complicated their dialog trees can go, but definitely I’d like some variety in my responses.

I’m sure there’s a technical limitation, but I don’t think implementing this would have to be any more complex than what’s already in the game.

There are already many occasions where the player can choose between 2-3 unvoiced dialog options and trigger either a slightly varied unvoiced NPC response or a generic enough NPC response that it would fit whichever choice you made.

A good example is the dynamic event in Queensdale that begins with convincing Ine Duran to go fishing again after she’s been scared by the barracuda. Regardless of what you say to her she still does what you ask her to, so there’s no major difference in event scripting, but you can take three different tones with her to establish your own character, and her (unvoiced) verbal response is slightly different to reflect that.

If that’s possible for a minor dynamic event in a starting area, surely it would also be possible for inclusion in the living story?

It doesn’t have to be anything big or complicated, just a small amount of choice to give the player more agency when it comes to roleplaying our characters.

I’m assuming that an expansion would be paid, and I’m fine with that. ANet has already given us a massive amount of content for the box price, and the number of hours I’ve spent on the game make it a very good value for my money. I never expected endless content without ever having to pay for any of it. I’d be happy to buy an expansion when/if the time comes.