Showing Posts For Ashen.2907:

Auto Loot Dosen't work on death...

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

You end up seeing 5-10 bags around your corpse.

Grats on taking 5 – 10 enemies down with you though!

How does one start WvW'ing?

in WvW

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

PvE zerker builds often lack sufficient sustain for WvW.

Bring condition clears

Be prepared to die….a lot. Dont be discouraged.

Watch your 6. There are stealthed enemies out there waiting to catch you unawares.

The probelm with loot in the game

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

snipples

no one after level 80 is going to use some random drop. the gold from them is extremely marginal. basically worthless. they can be broken down, and the high material count required by recipes makes this the most worthwhile thing to do.

Yep. I mention breaking drops down for mats a few posts up in this thread.

And please leave my snipples out of it ; )

Where do the harpies go?

in WvW

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

A: Nowhere
Once you have harpies, it’s for life

I laughed out loud.

Thank you.

Invisible Shoes! What the?!

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

As I said: It’s just a thought. But as we know, Trading Post was and is a money making machine. Buy cheap, sell high. It is normal economic thinking, and it works. “Opportunity plus instinct equals profit.” – 9nd Rule of Acquisition (for Trekkies)

I remember a old Story from Guild Wars 1. Crystalline Swords were a very expensive object (even if the skin was … meh). It was, because these swords droped rarely, and only on very specific locations on the game. Long time people did not know, were exactly the Crystalline Swords can be found. So the price kept high, even for Swords with average stats. Someday, someone leaked a information of a farming spot, and the people who knew the whole time about this spot went mad about the leaker. They (a bunch of people) kept this a secret to make high amounts of money. I do now know anymore, if the leaker was one of them, but oh boy, that was a mud fight. Friendships broke, accounts were temporally shut down because of the toxic.

The moral of the story: “Greed is eternal.” – 10nd Rule of Acquisition

Oh, I dont doubt the possibility, just curious as to whether it was speculation or supported.

I honestly didnt realize that crystalline sword farming was that much of a secret. Then again I was not active on any of the forums back then (other than a couple of ranger build theorycrafting sites).

Difficulty Level of raids

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

I found original Orr to be more annoying than difficult. Mob desnity combined with omnipresent CC made getting anywhere a pain, but not really dangerous.

The probelm with loot in the game

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

Weird, I distinctly remember farming for years in gw1, for items linked to specific areas or mobs, and not getting the drop. Hundreds of hours, no luck.

Funny bit of trivia, “almost impossible,” means, “not impossible.”

what about the part that i have bin playing GW2 from the get go and no pre-cursor yet a snob who plays just a week get one dropped, that’s the true problem with loot here.

Yep that happens here too. No precursor yet for me either.

I was kind of responding to someone claiming that it was (almost) impossible to farm for something in a game with specific drops tied to specific areas or mobs, as was the case in gw1, and never get the drop.

Why does being a new player (having only played a week) make one a snob?

the snob part is more the “13 year old getting it without any effort at all”, at this point they should just give ppl who played in the first year a pre-cursor of choice even if it’s account bound.

Before HOT that might had made sense…… but it would still be a pretty poor idea, as it breaks some of the satiation value of an otherwise high value project. Participation trophies are psychological poison, as most of the time a person realizes they were given something without earning it. Before Pre-Crafting, getting Pres was just flat out too expensive for most people to pick up- and thus wasn’t worth the effort required when there were more useful investments for your gold (like Asc crafting). After
Pre-crafting was added, it caused 2 major shifts in the Legendary Market…. First, there was a more reliable way to obtain them, and were tradable, which created competition on the TP. Secondly, it was also a less obtuse way to get them- which made the process less daunting to players who don’t have a lot of money, and could incrementally work toward one using gathered Mats instead of gold.

Together, those 2 factors suddenly made Legendary collecting more reasonable in the minds of the average player. All they had to do was reach a point where they realize they have a small stock pile of mats to help get started, and it simply clicks that the process is actually attainable. I didn’t realize it at first, but many of the collection are intent on trying to push the player into exploring the TP, and leverage it to do crafting projects. This then directly or indirectly encourages players to learn efficient sources of materials, trading unwanted materials for needed ones, training them to recognize potentially valuable drops, and how to utilize gold in the game’s market place.

Simply giving players an extremely valuable item really does rob the sense of value it should have. But having it as a visible, but optional path via crafting, gives the player a lot of agency on when and how they want to approach it. It still being expensive hasn’t stopped players from producing them to either drop on the market, or for their own uses…. but a hugely positive side effect is getting players to utilize their stock plies of mats, and get them participating in the TP.

My only point of disagreement with your view is that build experimentation, at max level, with BiS gear, is an integral part of basic gameplay for me. Legendaries are nothing more than saved bag space for me. They have no more inherent value than ascended except for inventory space savings.

I cannot speak for others, but the time investment and cost associated with pursuing legendaries is offputting to save bag space. If I were to be given a legendary there would be no sense of being inappropriately rewarded. I would immediately reskin it, and 5hen get on with playing for fun without having half of my inventory taken up by weapons and armor of varying stat combinations.

There is no "living world" in GW2

in Living World

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

ArenaNet tried the whole “living world” thing to the best of their ability. That was Season 1. People hated it, so they went a different route, but they kept the name. Simple as that.

People didn’t hate it; it wasn’t as simple as that.

Nearly everyone loved the immediacy and everyone loved the sheer amount of updates. Some people hated missing an update and more than a few hated the idea that they (or someone else) might miss an update. People loved new stuff, but some hated missing out on old stuff.

Heck, some people never accept any changes to the game, which is why we have constant calls for a return to the old Lion’s Arch, to bring back dungeons (which never left), and some people insist on a Holy Trinity.

Regardless of our own preferences, ANet had a rough time of it during Season 1. It was difficult to implement, it kept developers working at their peak nearly all the time (which is non-sustainable), and the infrastructure wasn’t really ready to handle it.

And I think everyone can agree that no game can be successful enough to discard content at nearly the same rate that it adds content.

So, no, it’s not a simple story: some loved it, some hated it, some would want to see something like Season 1 again. It was a great idea, a rough implementation, a tough sell for many people, and a lot more work for ANet that what we have now. ANet changed direction because, for less effort, they could keep delivering enough content to keep most of us happy enough most of the time.

Sorry to interject but not everyone loved the immediacy and the amount of updates. S1 pushed me away from the game for some time.

I completely agree that it was a great idea with rough implementation though.

Condi Thief Plague

in WvW

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

Dire does NOT have the same damage output as zerker.

It CAN.. unless you don’t plan on using Conditions to deal damage.. lol.

Dire only has one stat that can increase damage. Vitality and toughness is for sustain.

Thats the point, Power builds have to invest in the holy trinity to deal damage competitively, Power, Precision, Ferocity.

While Condition builds only need Condition Damage and dump other stats for insane tanking ability.. 3k armor 20k++ HP while dealing damage high enough to compete with full glass Power builds.

Power builds do not HAVE to invest all of those points via gear into precision, ferocity and Power. They have that CHOICE meaning they are more flexible.

Having more choices is not a bad thing. I posted a warrior build up avove that has over 26k in health and over 3 k in armor. The ferocity when the stacks get on is 210 percent damage. The precision runs at close to a 90 percent crit rate. It pumps out plenty of damage as it also runs with a near constant 15 might stacks. It also has oodles of resistance (10 seconds out of 16 just on using healing signet let alone Berserker stance)

Crit and ferocity do little for a Condition build outside a few classes and therefore are not used. The proper way to look at this is a Condition build can only really increase damage output via one stat whereas a power build can increase it via 3.

On two of my POWER thieves , I sacrificed precision in one and used Sigil of Intell and DrD runes to make up for that. On another I took a small hit to power and make up for that via might stacking. On this latter I actually did very well for the longest time using Sentinel runes and the reason I pulled out of those was not because he could nto do enough damage but because I found with the dodges and stealth and evades he had available all that extra toughness was not needed.

There all manner of ways to make up for lacjing precision , power or ferocity via traitlines and balancing weapon sigils and the like that allow you to take more vitality and toughness, far more then available to a condition build. As example my Staff p/p thief has coupled might stacking with high quickness uptime which serves power builds far more then Condition builds.

One of the reasons I favor power builds and WHY it is I have close to 30 toons with multiples of the same class is because they are much more flexible as to how they can be built when compared to condition simply because they have more ATTRIBUTES they can choose from that help in their builds. It means I can shape a given build to have a wider variety of strengths and weaknesses something that does not exist to the same extent in Condition builds.

Less choices does not equate to being OP.

Finally NO. Condition builds can not pump out as much damage as power builds UNLESS the person at the other end refuses to cleanse. Using DPS meters off fighting golems to make this point is about the silliest thing I have seen on these boards as those Golems do not cleanse.

Players can and do. There a whole pile of players that just want to trait their old power builds with sigil air, sigil fire. Scholars armor and take every damage increasing trait they can because they want the single biggest damage spike they can muster. I have no problem with them doing that. It their choice , but to then come to the boards and whine because they do not have enough cleanses to deal with condition builds because of choices they made is rather inane.

Sorry for the off topic but I gave that warrior build a run, with tweaks for personal taste, and was impressed. Thanks for sharing.

Please Fix Participation For Outnumbered Maps

in WvW

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

I understand the frustration of being badly outnumbered. No matter where you go it seems as if there is a half dozen enemies waiting to pounce. The frustration gets to the point that you have to vent. You exaggerate. Others call you out on the exaggeration and you get more frustrated. Frustration leads to stubbornness and you fly headlong into enemy groups again and again, getting more frustrated each time.

Take a step back.

Take a deep breath.

Rethink your approach.

It is very possible to earn pips on an outnumbered map. I LOVE the extra pips, but not enough to go looking for the outnumbered buff.

Change up your approach a bit. Think it through before leaving spawn. Strategize. Come up with contingencies. THEN hit the field.

Your blood pressure will be better and you will love the increased rate at which you can gain pips.

…regardless, and for what its worth, my apologies for the tone of my previous posts in this thread.

Feedback: Pip Acquisition [merged]

in WvW

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

When one decides what to do in a game it should be apparent what gives what rewards, from the sounds of it, everyone who played WvW before knew it gave kitten all and played it anyway, hence they made a decision about it, they hardly made the decision with a motivation “if I zerg a ton now maybe I will get rewarded sometime in 2017”. Retroactive rewards by their very nature are dumb since they reward players for a non-decision.

When I play in PvE in my favorite zones I do so without motivation for a given or specific drop, a precursor for example, so should chance of said dropping be eliminated from anyone who does not specifically state what exactly they might be hoping for as a reward?

No, of course not. Every specific drop I’ve ever gotten has been, “a non-decision.” There is however a somewhat common, reasonable in my opinion, assumption that your time and effort spent in an endeavor in game will be rewarded by the game. Correcting what some might consider design errors in this area is not a bad thing.

Non-decision in this context refers to the fact that doing the thing giving the reward was made without knowledge of the reward, not regardless of if there was a reward or not.

But you are aware of what the rewards are/have the possibility to be, personally I don’t think extremely low drop rate items such as precursor drops really have a place, but this is hardly the place for that discussion.

I am all for WvW giving rewards and I think it not giving good rewards from the start was a bad decision, however everyone who played the gamemode were perfectly aware of it and clearly played it for the actual fun of it. Giving out rewards retroactively has as clearly shown done nothing but create animosity.

I am fairly certain every single MMORPG player is aware that not all parts of the game is equally rewarding

The difference between a rank 1032 and a rank 9791 player is not comparable, the only difference is that they have played differently/for different amounts of time.

Or the difference between these two individuals could be that the higher ranked individual is more skilled, perhaps due to much more practice. The difference between these two individuals could be a matter of the lower ranked player being more skilled at individual play while the higher ranked is more knowledgeable about commanding….we do not know what the difference is without examining the individuals so it is questionable to claim what the, “only difference is,” without doing so.

Keywords here are “could be” and “we do not know”, hence giving them different rewards seems a bit weird, no?

rank in WvW means absolutely nothing.

A puzzling inaccuracy. Earlier in your post you claim that it does mean something, giving an example, and here you contradict yourself. Rank means something, potentially one of the most important things to the developer…how much you play

What I obviously mean is that rank means nothing as a skill indicator, which it does not, that much should be clear from the post.

Rank is a combination of a few factors, mainly how much WvW one has played, and how much of that time was spent doing the most “rewarding” activity, which happens to be omniblobbing, which is very nonconductive to skillful play. Beyond rank 482 or so, it has absolutely no impact on ability to contribute, before that there is situational differences.

And to people saying that high ranked players are the ones keeping the gamemode alive, that is completely insane, most of the high ranked players have gotten it through omniblobbing. Omniblobbing is killing the gamemode and is what makes many players steer clear of WvW. Omniblobbing is the reason there is lag in WvW among being among the reason actual fights are hard to find.

Some interesting, “no true scotsman,” arguing there.

When you say, “most,” what percentage do you mean?

Just arguing against the omniblobbers who claim to be the reason the gamemode is still alive, while i believe they are the reason many people avoid it.

Gonna make a rough estimate that about 100% of the people with a rank of 6k+ primarily zergs or used to primarily zerg in WvW as reaching it any other way while not impossible is truly a massive time investment.

Solid points.

Almost 5 years, still no swimsuits

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

We still need duel option in PvE. When they deliver that, they will swimsuits and underwater maps.

Yup, underwater, swimsuit clad dueling !!!

Does anyone miss the old rivalries?

in WvW

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

I think I do miss many the old rivalries, they were often times of grudging respect

Server pride was very real for some players, and whilst it hasn’t totally died it is much diminished. I understand however that some players don’t understand the concept.

For me, server pride is about:

  • working to keep my home BL the right colour, whatever the odds.
  • responding to calls for help from other guilds, and being welcomed by them simply because we’re on the same team.
  • running yaks and refreshing siege to have the BL ready for the next team when they come online.

It was also about the reputation we had as a server that just would not lie down and quit.

Winning was part of the fun, but the bigger reason for playing, for some of us at least, was to be there to support our server. It’s that warm fuzzy feeling when the next commander comes on and says “Hey! We’ve got waypoints!” and you know they stand a better chance because of your work.

Linking changed this because my server became a guest server and a lot of our identity has been lost; not least because matches are always referred to using the host server name however much support the guest servers provide.

BTW, I like the idea of an incentive for staying on the same server. I suggest a full set of Server specific Legendary armour for anyone who, like me, has more than 4 years on the same server

I like the way you think.

Please Fix Participation For Outnumbered Maps

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Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

You get credit for killing anything that’s not a neutral. Even if you lose, you can just kill guards. I mean, I got 50% of level 1 by getting a single kill.

If you tag someone and die, you’ll still get credit if someone else kills them.

Hence the bizarre tactic of finding 2 opposing groups and trying to tag them.

Go around killing guards. When someone takes the objective in the future, you still get credit…

You’ve never been on an outnumerbered server have you? You can’t kill guards if there are 40 people waiting to kill you at every camp and every tower.

Im willing to bet that most players have been on outnumbered maps, more than once. I, for example, completed the bronze tier chest last night while outnumbered.

Please Fix Participation For Outnumbered Maps

in WvW

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

I do think that fighting and dying to enemy players is participating. Why do you think fighting and dying to enemy players is not participating?

Charging headlong into a zerg with no possibility of success is no more actual participation than is choosing to run off a cliff. Its suicide.

Actually its worse than running off a cliff. Suicide via zerg is actively aiding the other side. Why should treason be rewarded?

The current reward system is that you get ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for trying. That’s discouraging people from playing the game. And, since the case mentioned, outnumbered, does not aid the other side, it can’t be your so-called treason, as the other side gets nothing for killing you.

Running off of a cliff, or similar forms of suicide, are not, “trying.” Rewarding running off of a cliff, or similar forms of suicide, does not encourage playing the game mode, it encourages running off of a cliff, etc.

My apologies, I was not aware that WvWXP, participation, kill count, and bag drops were all suspended when your foe is outnumbered.

Invisible Shoes! What the?!

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

Not trying to be dismissive, but wouldnt it be less stressful to just farm the gold and buy it from the TP?

I’ve been thinking for quite a while that there are 1, 2 or maybe 3 players are forming a monopoly to keep the price up. So if you are willing to pay there price, you do support there methodes, and that makes me puke.

Any evidence?

High price alone is not evidence of market manipulation when speaking of very rare drops.

Please Fix Participation For Outnumbered Maps

in WvW

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

I do think that fighting and dying to enemy players is participating. Why do you think fighting and dying to enemy players is not participating?

Charging headlong into a zerg with no possibility of success is no more actual participation than is choosing to run off a cliff. Its suicide.

Actually its worse than running off a cliff. Suicide via zerg is actively aiding the other side. Why should treason be rewarded?

Easy Motes for Raids?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

There are multiple threads on this and related topics in the raids forum. A lot of interesting feedback there.

The probelm with loot in the game

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

you missed the main point about loot in this game… there are too much useless items after level 80.

Most of them can be used, via merchant npc, to generate gold, or can be broken down into mats for crafting, or for sale via TP. Or even for completing a collection.

I mean, even if every drop was a perfect ascended weapon ….how many could I possibly use? Should there be zero drops after equiping our characters?

The probelm with loot in the game

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

Weird, I distinctly remember farming for years in gw1, for items linked to specific areas or mobs, and not getting the drop. Hundreds of hours, no luck.

Funny bit of trivia, “almost impossible,” means, “not impossible.”

what about the part that i have bin playing GW2 from the get go and no pre-cursor yet a snob who plays just a week get one dropped, that’s the true problem with loot here.

Yep that happens here too. No precursor yet for me either.

I was kind of responding to someone claiming that it was (almost) impossible to farm for something in a game with specific drops tied to specific areas or mobs, as was the case in gw1, and never get the drop.

Why does being a new player (having only played a week) make one a snob?

Does anyone miss the old rivalries?

in WvW

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

I don’t play WvW when my server is hosted by certain others. Just doesn’t feel right to help them win.

Where do the harpies go?

in WvW

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

Neighborhood bar, for a beer.

Maybe some peanuts too.

Problem with Goldsellers

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

I understand the feeling that it’s cheating to buy gold even via the legit company provided method. I, like you, am livid at gold sellers.

However, it is designed into the game economy and is meant to dissuade illicit gold buying, which is far worse for the game as the vultures and leeches strip mine the game for gold in order to profit off impatient, unethical players, without heed to how they are wrecking the game experience for real customers. Moreover, remember that gems don’t just buy gold: gold buys gems! And new gems only show up for purchase if people do swap their gems for gold. If you buy gold with your cash-bought gems, you are helping drag the price down for players that need to gather up gold in-game in order to get the pretty things on the gem store. You’re adding to the supply to meet the demand.

I seldom buy gold with my gems, I pretty much have to really want a thing on the TP that I cannot otherwise get (I don’t mean a legendary, egad, I’m not spending that kind of cash on pixels — if I were I would have long since ceased my whimpers about how much I want a permanent hair stylist, lol). But when I do, I am secure in the knowledge that ANet both approves and desires the transaction in order to keep things balanced.

I hope that helps.

how is
“you know this thing people do that f’d your enjoyment, effort put into the game and all the fun out of archieving stuff?”
“yer?.. yes, good.. we are going to do that ourself now, so forget about any kind of damage control or minimum amount of people doing it etc…”

while we are at it why not sell hacking and botting tools as well? i mean it is a huge issue in general in mmo’s and people will always use them, so why not just let Anet prvide them? they will even be better than ever as they will be part of the ingame UI’s…

seriously, how that is a logical “reasoning” is beyound my understanding :/ i just don’t get it and can’t get my head to accept it


yer it sadly didnt help. i just can’t get my mind of the “ow there goes 1 day of playing, you could have had an extra legendary piece there, boy you must be having fun for giving up 1 legendary piece just for that play session” … and no i was not having That! much fun, no one is :/

So after you worked over time and bought everything you want in the game whats the point of playing for you?

I play the game to do things i like doing and earn gold for the goals i set for myself.

So what if it takes 800 hours for me to get that legendary piece i had fun collecting the funds for it

Exactly, That is my point….
why would i even play now? why wasted my time with it when i know i could just buy everything and done with it.. then why even start in the first place… and grinding the hours it takes to earn it now seems idiotic to do compared to just doing a few extra work hours.
So its made it all pointless, which is why the game now feel depressing to open :/

Why play?

Because playing is fun. The act of participation should be fun in itself. If it isnt, for you, then you have already answered your own question.

The probelm with loot in the game

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

Weird, I distinctly remember farming for years in gw1, for items linked to specific areas or mobs, and not getting the drop. Hundreds of hours, no luck.

Funny bit of trivia, “almost impossible,” means, “not impossible.”

Feedback: Pip Acquisition [merged]

in WvW

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

When one decides what to do in a game it should be apparent what gives what rewards, from the sounds of it, everyone who played WvW before knew it gave kitten all and played it anyway, hence they made a decision about it, they hardly made the decision with a motivation “if I zerg a ton now maybe I will get rewarded sometime in 2017”. Retroactive rewards by their very nature are dumb since they reward players for a non-decision.

When I play in PvE in my favorite zones I do so without motivation for a given or specific drop, a precursor for example, so should chance of said dropping be eliminated from anyone who does not specifically state what exactly they might be hoping for as a reward?

No, of course not. Every specific drop I’ve ever gotten has been, “a non-decision.” There is however a somewhat common, reasonable in my opinion, assumption that your time and effort spent in an endeavor in game will be rewarded by the game. Correcting what some might consider design errors in this area is not a bad thing.

The difference between a rank 1032 and a rank 9791 player is not comparable, the only difference is that they have played differently/for different amounts of time.

Or the difference between these two individuals could be that the higher ranked individual is more skilled, perhaps due to much more practice. The difference between these two individuals could be a matter of the lower ranked player being more skilled at individual play while the higher ranked is more knowledgeable about commanding….we do not know what the difference is without examining the individuals so it is questionable to claim what the, “only difference is,” without doing so.

rank in WvW means absolutely nothing.

A puzzling inaccuracy. Earlier in your post you claim that it does mean something, giving an example, and here you contradict yourself. Rank means something, potentially one of the most important things to the developer…how much you play

And to people saying that high ranked players are the ones keeping the gamemode alive, that is completely insane, most of the high ranked players have gotten it through omniblobbing. Omniblobbing is killing the gamemode and is what makes many players steer clear of WvW. Omniblobbing is the reason there is lag in WvW among being among the reason actual fights are hard to find.

Some interesting, “no true scotsman,” arguing there.

When you say, “most,” what percentage do you mean?

Race should matter! A short rant.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

Okay, now think for a second. If you cut the overall content in order to produce more variety in the existent content, that evens it out.

Not even close.

1) differing branches of story for each race has a less than zero positive impact on players not interested in certain races. Literally less than zero because resources were removed from content appropriate to the race or races they do find interesting in order to add elements to races of no interest to them. A net loss.

2) racially branching story lines impact the ability for multiple players, in a massively multiplayer game, to progress story together. Great for a single player game perhaps though.

3) Time and resources spent on developing racial specific elements is not being spent on developing the overall story.

In a genre financially driven by quantity of multiplayer content, deciding, announcing to the press and the public, that you as a developer have decided to produce less content for the player base as a whole in order to provide a deeper, but much much shorter, single player experience FOR A PORTION OF THE PLAYER BASE, while ignoring the remainder, would be a misstep (at best).

Player returning after 3 years

in Players Helping Players

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

I would choose Ranger, but that’s just me.

Welcome return, and good luck.

This.

Jennah's kingdom and Kryta nation

in Living World

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

Jenna may, having responsibilities that trump her personal desires, be holding off on marriage in order to use the position of royal consort as a political tool in motivating important families and persons within the kingdom. The possibility of marrying into royalty and having one’s own bloodline be futjre kings and queens could be held over numerous potential suitors for political and financial capital.

Feedback: Pip Acquisition [merged]

in WvW

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

The only average shown is the 3 pips. Everything else is assuming best case scenario. The chart is laughable. And rank gain hasn’t even been a focal point on this thread until you decided it should be. Nobody cares about that, the discussion is about pips and more specifically base pips.

So again I ask, what thread are you reading? Because it certainly is not this one.

The first two posts in the thread, along with others throughout, reference difference in pip gain based on rank (making rank gain itself relevant to the discussion since it impacts that metric) as the posters’ primary complaint. Base pips is one of multiple points of discussion, not the sole point.

Race should matter! A short rant.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

I’m not sure what is wrong with race being part of the meta as class is part of the meta. Nothing should be so unequal that people don’t want to, or are shunned if they play a certain class. So the same should be true if race mattered to your build.

So you would be happy you leveled up a human warrior when all the meta groups say to you sorry charr is better race you cant join us.

Are you “happy” if you level up that Warrior and all the meta groups don’t want Warriors? What’s the difference?

The difference, to me at least, is that a Warrior, guardian, or Revenant all look the same in terms of base aesthetics. They wear the same armor, etc.

Having a performance variable based on race would be comparable to saying that hair color choice, or body size choice, eye color, or skin tone should determine performance. Should gender play a role in character performance?

By deciding that race, gender, and other character appearance decisions should not affect character performance Anet have reduced the likelihood that playing a character whose appearance appeals to you will result in under or overpowered combinations.

[Suggestion] Ranger Pet Additions

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Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

If you get a charr mount, my norn gets an asura. Just sayin’.

Deal.

Feedback: Pip Acquisition [merged]

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Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

my problem with the current system is that it punished new players.
We are being actively pushed out, because if you’re not rank 3000 by now, there’s no way in seven realms of oblivion and the gazing abyss behind it that you can complete the wooden chest in one week.
I think it would be more than fair that if at friday you havent completed the wooden chest, your pips don’t reset. Either that, or evenly distribute the rewards over the subchests. At least then there’s a prospect of progress.
To give a short anagram:

John has worked for Records for 5 years, he’s a veteran, and makes 4 euros per hour.
Jack has worked for Records for a few months now, he’s adapted to the world, but as a novice, he’s paid 2 euros per hour, sometimes only 1 euro per hour if his colleagues are slacking, meaning he’s punished for their negligence.
The boss of Records doesn’t want to pay out the wages if the wage is less than a 100 euros. either you get a checque for the full wage, or he wont pay you anything at all, even if you did the same amount of work.

So, John works for 20 hours, and has therefore earned the 100 euro check of his wage. The boss signs the checque, and he can collect his wage. Jack also works 20 hours, but he only made 30 to 50 euros on his clock, so the boss says “I don’t care how hard you work, if I have to pay you less than 100 euros, ’m not paying you at all”, so Jack goes home tired and sore, knowing he didn’t make a dime during the 20 hours, goes to sleep hungry, frustrated, and tired, while John down the corridor is throwing a party.

The next week, John goes back to work, and works another 25 hours to make sure he hits 50 euros. He walks up to his boss and asks for the pay now, but the boss says “nooo, you can’t make the wage in two sessions, you have to make the wage in one go. On friday I reset the clocks, so you gotta make the 100 euros in one week, but if you have trouble getting that in 20 hours, why not work for 50 hours, maybe 60, you don’t need sleep, you don’t need a social life, just lock yourself into the office and work until you’ve made a 100 euros

I am well below rank 3000. I am well below rank 300. I have managed to complete the wooden chest each week playing casually. I have a full time job that, with commute, takes up as much as 16 hours of my day some days and as little as 10 hours others. I am also married and spend time with my wife. I really dont understand how you can imagine that it is impossible to complete the wooden chest in a week if I can do so.

[Suggestion] Ranger Pet Additions

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Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

Charr. Yes, one of the big horned kitties would make a great pet.

No, not a good choice.

Charr would make much a better mount.

Solid point.

Speed up Minis!

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Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

I agree! Ist just quirky seeing them slowly crawl after their owner, then speeding up a kittenton or upright porting.
While at it, could they be made to gain invisibility on Player invisibility, too?

Please no. I recently spotted a minipet in WvW. No one else around me so I dropped an array of traps and waited for the thief to attack. Dodged, hit my entangle, and killed him pretty quickly. He would have had me if he had stowed his minipet or if it had been stealthed with him.

[Suggestion] Ranger Pet Additions

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Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

Charr. Yes, one of the big horned kitties would make a great pet.

Race should matter! A short rant.

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Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

You are confusing “content” with “story-telling”. I’d gladly have “less content” if it meant that the content I got had more diversity and was replayable without causing boredom.

No confusion on my part. If the storytelling aspect had its cost dramatically increased then it is what would likely be curtailed.

How would it “increase the cost”, if the devs were working on the several story path options instead of “more story content”? Logic?

More story paths would cost more than fewer story paths. Seems pretty logical to me that X * 5 > X (where x is tbe cost of one story path).

Producing less content overall leads to a perception of stagnation, lowered revenue, and reduced player population. If it takes 2 years to produce kitten expansion for sale, what percentage of the player base would wait for 10 years and be willing to pay $250?

Perhaps the increase in production time would not be exactly proportional to the increase in number of story paths. Perhaps it would only take 7 or 8 years and cost only a$175 – $200. Or, since a portion of the player base will have abandoned the game while waiting everyone remaining will have to pay more to cover the loss… $300 expansion? Perhaps, instead of raising prices Anet will decide to reduce costs in another way. Less staff. An expansion every 12 years?

Of course, if adding more story paths raises income above what more content can bring in, more power to you. I wouldnt pay for more race based story pathing. I also wouldnt buy smaller and/or more expensive expansions made so in order to include an element of no interest to me. HoT story was short enough. Reducing its play time to a few minutes or an hour would not look good in the media.

“New GW2 expansion released with 1 hour of play time…but you can replay that 1 hour 5 times with minor variations.” Not good press.

Edit: chuckle. “A fifty dollar” (using $ and 50) was kittened.

(edited by Ashen.2907)

Race should matter! A short rant.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

You have yet failed to explain how a change of racial skills would improve story telling.

You are hung up on that strawman of yours… NO ONE has made any such claim that changing racial skills would improve story telling. The suggestions to improve racial skills and to improve story telling by making your race, background, class, etc… matter are TWO ENTIRELY SEPARATE CONCEPTS.

1) Improving racial skills and making a racial skill slot makes your choice of race feel more impactful and meaningful in general content as you can actually make use of your racial skills without sacrificing build performance.

2) Improving story telling by making your race, background, class, etc… have meaning in the story again (how it was in the early part of the vanilla story)… would have a profound impact on the quality of the story. Our “personal story” would actually be personal again.

Two related but separate ideas. There is ZERO need to “explain how a change of racial skills would improve story telling,” because that was NEVER a part of the suggestion to begin with. You called it out as a strawman when you brought it up in the first place, but the truth is, you created the strawman with that very same breath.

Thank you, Panda, you spared me the typing.

On the one hand I think that a greater personalization of the story could be fun.

On the other hand I am firmly of the belief that the increased costs of essentially writing multiple variations of the story, at least one per race (and why not per class or temperment?) would lead to a massive reduction of storytelling in the game.

You are confusing “content” with “story-telling”. I’d gladly have “less content” if it meant that the content I got had more diversity and was replayable without causing boredom.

No confusion on my part. If the storytelling aspect had its cost dramatically increased then it is what would likely be curtailed.

Personally, as much as increased story personalization could be fun, adding it through racial diversity would do nothing for me. I would need to be able to make decisions that would completely alter the story itself..to a degree that it would likely not even come close to resembling the story experienced by other players.

Personalization of the story would add virtually no replayability for me.

Race should matter! A short rant.

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Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

On the one hand I think that a greater personalization of the story could be fun.

On the other hand I am firmly of the belief that the increased costs of essentially writing multiple variations of the story, at least one per race (and why not per class or temperment?) would lead to a massive reduction of storytelling in the game.

Race should matter! A short rant.

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Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

I dont think that improved racial skills are necessary to good story telling. I think that good story tellers and a willingness to commit to good story telling are.

Arenanet has broken its promise

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Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

Wait, what? Where did I describe this game as not decent?
Ah, I didn’t…
The " "s were added by you to the word decent from my post for some reason.
I’d love to stay and chat but I have things to do…
Bye, bye.

K. Bye bye

But I’ll answer you anyway….

I don’t mind grinding to get things with in reason, I accept I have to work for the things I want but when I only get one decent drop every 3-6 months that’s worth anything, It’s hard to justify the time I pour into this game for the very minimal rewards…
Yet until the next big decent MMO comes along it’s either GW2 or the drivel on TV

Here you rated gw2 as being the entertainment equivalent of drivel on tv and that you’re waiting for the “next big decent MMO”. Now unless you’re saying that drivel on tv is at the same entertainment level as a decent MMO, then gw2 (which is on the same level as drivel according to you) is not a decent MMO.

So, you think gw2 has the same entertainment value as tv drivel and you also don’t like the grind in this game. The two are related, since of course you aren’t going to want to grind when while playing drivel level content.

Which is why I recommend you find other entertainment. Why waste your time on entertainment which is on the same level of tv drivel? But if you do stick around until the better MMO comes along, then why waste your time doing boring grind, (“Oh, so I don’t have to grind levels, just everything else? Sounds fun”) that you’re going to immediately abandon?

All MMOs have grind. Your next decent MMO will have grind. If you are not enjoying it then other entertainment is better.

He seems to indicate that he is playing gw2 instead of the drivel on tv, which implies that he considers gw2 to be the better option.

By saying, “the next decent mmo,” he seems to be indicating another decent mmo in addition to one he is already aware of. As gw2 is the only mmo he has indicated he is playing it is implied that gw2 is the decent mmo he is aware of.

Decent does not mean above complaint. I would consider decent to be below good, but not bad. I believe gw2 is at least a decent mmo, but, like anything produced by humans, possessing flaws.

Silly hats. Do you want them?

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Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

I do not want them.

I cannot honestly say that I think they take away from the aesthetics of the game as the aesthetics of the game have, in my opinion, long since been compromised.

Arenanet has broken its promise

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Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

Founder Mike O’Brien did not leave.

Yes, my bad. The others did, making him the only original founder left. Maybe that’s part of the problem?

I don’t know, it’s just that I feel that the game has nothing more to give, while it could have been so much more. It’s one big “same old, same old” with no variety whatsoever.

For some reason, the devs believe that adding jumping mushrooms and oakheart essences makes for variety, but it does not. The game doesn’t make you feel, it doesn’t truly touch you and excite you (not anymore). It’s just fighting one big bad after another, with no real personal involvement in the story, no personalized content based on race and background story, no nothing that makes for an exciting RPG experience.

The game doesn’t make you feel, it doesn’t truly touch you and excite you (not anymore). It’s just fighting one big bad after another….

I wonder though if part of the problem with an unexciting story line lies with the original choice of antagonist. Which is elder dragons that are portrayed more like forces of nature than thinking, scheming creatures. There’s only so much one can do with a story about battling a force of nature. By itself the plot is going to be linear and simplistic, since a dragon has limited ways to twist and turn the plot. That’s maybe why they brought in the White Mantle so there can be betrayal and human motives, but that’s only part of the main, linear plot. imo they’d be better off getting rid of the ‘elder dragons eating magic’ plot line as soon as possible and bring in plot lines that can have more depth.

There is a reason why so much of the emphasis in a great natural disaster movie is on the character interactions. The “villain” of the movie, the earthquake, or fire, or whatever, lacks the depth of an interesting antagonist. The dragons would have been better as a backdrop against which we face important dragon servitor main villains with depth and character (IMO of course).

Arenanet has broken its promise

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Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

@OP – You miss the most important part: Those key people talking in the trailer, the veterans from GW1, are no longer part of the team. Founder Mike O’Brien (I loved that guy) left, and so did Ree Soesbee (she was great), and Daniel Dociu (his son took over as lead artist who apparently prefers a more modern style than good old-fashioned classic fantasy). That’s why GW2 has become more and more of a grinding game with weird new designs. And in many aspects it tries to copy other MMO’s core content (raids, for instance) instead of staying true to the original vision. I’d prefer to have better storylines personalized for my characters (race, background, alignment etc.) than new ways to ridiculously move through a map etc.

So I am currently desperately looking for an alternative, because GW2 just isn’t cutting it for me anymore (I’m merely hanging by a thread, trying to fill the “gap” with new characters only to experience some of the good content again on my way to Level 80). I am so bored most of the time. It feels too repetitive, as you correctly stated (and adding new means of travel doesn’t help the issue). Unfortunately, all the other MMOs out there are just as repetitive. The original vision of what GW2 was supposed to be has been canned in many aspects for the sake of satisfying those standard MMO players. While it still has a uniqueness about it, it is gradually fading. Quantity doesn’t equal quality.

P.S. This video summarizes the issue pretty well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTHsll9LFZ4

When did MO leave?

Feedback: Pip Acquisition [merged]

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Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

spvp does not mechanically award game time
pve does not mechanically award game time
wvw does mechanically award game time

all game modes award player skill to varying extents and of course if you play any game mode long enough you’ll get more rewards. But im talking about coded systems which reward you simply because your rank/playtime is high with more rewards/easier rewards, independently of what you do in each game mode or how well you play. (basically it awards you more because of your OVERALL play time, even if you are standing there)

wvw system, mechanically the system is fair in the sense that it is the same grind for everyone, the rules do not change from player to player. x number of hours = x number of rewards. But it is a bell curve as i will explain next.

wvw system is unfair in the sense that the penalties associated for new players translates to increased required time spent in order to earn the same rewards as “veteran wvwers.” this can be solved by balancing it or just letting everyone earn the same pips. That way time spent playing wvw = fair amount of rewards gained for the time put in.

If they want to retroactively go back and award everyone (which is what they said they wanted to do). They should not reward “veteran” players by giving them less grind per week to recieve rewards. This makes “veteran” rewards directly penalize newer/lower rank players because in essence that is the reward, penalizing others. The reward in essence is not being handicapped like newer players. This is detrimental and dissuasive to the wvw player base as a whole.

when you take this system and compare it to all other game modes, its completely an outlier and makes no sense to the cohesiveness that is gw2.

The game rewards us for time spent. This is by design. Just the act of having spent the few seconds needed to log in more times than a new player means that I will have accumulated more rewards than he. Killing mobs in queensdale alone , requiring no skill, and little effort, for almost 5 years before someone who joins the game today would mean being able to access rewards faster than they can.

One of the complaints I have seen since launch is that the game does not reward skilled play sufficiently compared to rewards for just showing up and spending time.

In GW2 time > almost anything else. You may not like this, but it isnt unique to wvw and it isnt new. It just happens that this instance involves a situation where some people, who havent spent the time, want the rewards for doing so.

So you’re saying a crappy players in PVP and PVE (T4 Fotms & Raids) will be rewarded nicely regardless of skills, but instead on time they spend as is the case in zerg fiesta? Some of you WvW players make no god kitten sense. In PvE, if you’re good you can progress through your collection and weekly rewards at a faster rate. It’s not based on higher rank as WvW is, but skill regardless if you’re new or not. PVP it’s the same thing, you acquire more pips not based on how many times you lvled up passed dragon rank, but on how well you actually do in matches. It’s perfectly fine to have rewards for higher ranked zerg fiesta players, but stop acting like a system that rewards people for being high ranking and greatly handicaps lower ranks, and not skillful play as is the case in every other game mode is reasonable. I don’t have to spend a inordinate amount of time in PVP or PVE Raids and T4s to be rewarded in a reasonable consistent manner on actual skillful play, but I do in WvW, which makes no sense.

You might want to reread my post because it doesnt say what you claim.

How much skillful play does the largest component content of the game, open world PvE, require?

I am primary a PvE player. Rank 265 reached yesterday.

You said, “How much skillful play does the largest component content of the game, open world PvE, require”

So getting raid kills, and being able to have items interact with raid instances that need to be clear is open world now? You do realize to get through those collections you need to actually get through the raid encounters besides the offshoot objectives?

I never said that raid instances are open world.

I asked how much skillful play does open world PvE require? As open world PvE is the majority of the game its lack of requirement for skilled play supports my earlier position. Raids and T4 Fractals are a tiny percentage of the game.

Feedback: Pip Acquisition [merged]

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Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

spvp does not mechanically award game time
pve does not mechanically award game time
wvw does mechanically award game time

all game modes award player skill to varying extents and of course if you play any game mode long enough you’ll get more rewards. But im talking about coded systems which reward you simply because your rank/playtime is high with more rewards/easier rewards, independently of what you do in each game mode or how well you play. (basically it awards you more because of your OVERALL play time, even if you are standing there)

wvw system, mechanically the system is fair in the sense that it is the same grind for everyone, the rules do not change from player to player. x number of hours = x number of rewards. But it is a bell curve as i will explain next.

wvw system is unfair in the sense that the penalties associated for new players translates to increased required time spent in order to earn the same rewards as “veteran wvwers.” this can be solved by balancing it or just letting everyone earn the same pips. That way time spent playing wvw = fair amount of rewards gained for the time put in.

If they want to retroactively go back and award everyone (which is what they said they wanted to do). They should not reward “veteran” players by giving them less grind per week to recieve rewards. This makes “veteran” rewards directly penalize newer/lower rank players because in essence that is the reward, penalizing others. The reward in essence is not being handicapped like newer players. This is detrimental and dissuasive to the wvw player base as a whole.

when you take this system and compare it to all other game modes, its completely an outlier and makes no sense to the cohesiveness that is gw2.

The game rewards us for time spent. This is by design. Just the act of having spent the few seconds needed to log in more times than a new player means that I will have accumulated more rewards than he. Killing mobs in queensdale alone , requiring no skill, and little effort, for almost 5 years before someone who joins the game today would mean being able to access rewards faster than they can.

One of the complaints I have seen since launch is that the game does not reward skilled play sufficiently compared to rewards for just showing up and spending time.

In GW2 time > almost anything else. You may not like this, but it isnt unique to wvw and it isnt new. It just happens that this instance involves a situation where some people, who havent spent the time, want the rewards for doing so.

So you’re saying a crappy players in PVP and PVE (T4 Fotms & Raids) will be rewarded nicely regardless of skills, but instead on time they spend as is the case in zerg fiesta? Some of you WvW players make no god kitten sense. In PvE, if you’re good you can progress through your collection and weekly rewards at a faster rate. It’s not based on higher rank as WvW is, but skill regardless if you’re new or not. PVP it’s the same thing, you acquire more pips not based on how many times you lvled up passed dragon rank, but on how well you actually do in matches. It’s perfectly fine to have rewards for higher ranked zerg fiesta players, but stop acting like a system that rewards people for being high ranking and greatly handicaps lower ranks, and not skillful play as is the case in every other game mode is reasonable. I don’t have to spend a inordinate amount of time in PVP or PVE Raids and T4s to be rewarded in a reasonable consistent manner on actual skillful play, but I do in WvW, which makes no sense.

You might want to reread my post because it doesnt say what you claim.

How much skillful play does the largest component content of the game, open world PvE, require?

I am primary a PvE player. Rank 265 reached yesterday.

No more kiddy dialogue, please!

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Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

Don’t contractions, in one form or another, date back to Old and Middle English?

The probelm with loot in the game

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

I wish they would attach a value to bloodstone dust or dragonite ore so that instead of deleting 3+ stacks of this stuff each day (yes I use ALL of the garbage eaters) I could at least vendor it.

agreed.

Invisible Shoes! What the?!

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

Not trying to be dismissive, but wouldnt it be less stressful to just farm the gold and buy it from the TP?

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Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

No system will satisfy all of us, because we all have varying principles about what the ideal state is. We should be having 2 different debates – 1 about the principles, and one about the execution against the principles.

Some people want the new reward system to be attainable in the same time period for someone who ignored WvW for years and someone who played it exclusively despite kitten rewards. Others want to be able to maintain their more exclusive flashy stuff for longer before every Average Joe can get it and make it not “exclusive.”

Everyone should accept that no system will satisfy everyone’s inherently conflicting principles, and that every system is going to have some fundamental unfairness to it even if we agreed on most of the principles.

Despite all the differences expressed here, I think it’s fair to say that none of us think ANET nails the balance perfectly on the first time out, so it’s fair to say there might be room for improvements.

I’m opposed to any change that eliminates the value of higher WvW ranks entirely, because I know many of us have spent countless hours in WvW with really 0 rewards – before WvW reward tracks, you could spend literally hours in this game and make VERY little progress even on WvW rank, if you were scouting towers that didn’t end up getting attacked, or spent time repairing walls after a siege, or escorting yaks… I LOST money many nights back when we paid gold to upgrade structures for the benefit of the team. I got 4 years worth of rank gain advantage on a new WvW player, sure, but I didn’t get ANY skirmish tickets for all those weeks – new players will start getting skirmish tickets while they’re leveling up to bronze and gold (and come on, it’s not that slow to get to bronze or even gold, at which point you’re only a 1-3 pips/tick behind most regular WvW players out there – not that many people are diamond rank).

That said, that doesn’t mean the advantage has to be the current system or none.

I’m platinum rank (+4) now after years of casual WvW play and my advantage over a rank 0 amounts to less than the pips you can get for judicious use of outmanned buff. That tells me the outmanned buff is probably too strong, even if not always available. That someone who is Diamond (which is pretty rare) earns 2 pips/tick more than me seems pretty reasonable.

Full-pop servers probably hate that the system incentivizes people to semiafk and goose participation while taking map slots from more active players.

Maybe the advantage in pips-per-tick is too high a percentage of the overall pips – maybe baseline pips for all should go up 1 or 2, but keep the current rank gaps. Maybe the skirmish tickets should skew more to the lower end, so that the advantage in what is reasonably attainable is smaller, even if it does exist. Or maybe that shouldn’t slow down at the top, but you shouldn’t even expose the top chests to people until they ARE a certain rank (making lower tier players focus more on getting THEIR max rewards, after which their focus should on ranking up instead of maintaining participation over time with minimal activity). There are hundreds of ways to adjust the mechanics, all which will have some fundamental unfairness to it.

New WvW players need to respect that the advantage for long-devoted WvW players should exist as one of those principles (though again, we can debate the right principles), and Veterans reaping the advantage shouldn’t dismiss charges that the execution is flawed to reflexively defend ANET’s first real appreciation for your devotion to the game mode.

Well said.

Feedback: Pip Acquisition [merged]

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Ashen.2907

The reward…penalizes newer players

No it doesn’t.

Being rewarded commensurate with your investment is not a penalty. Getting what you paid for (with time as the currency) is not a penalty.

2 ways of looking at it
1st) the higher my rank is, the quicker I get my pips which means quicker ticket cap and more rewards and I don’t have to do anything special to get this currently, except for all my previous hours of gameplay.

2nd) the lower my rank is the more I am penalized and have to put in many more hours to achieve the same rewards as veterans, even though I am doing the same thing as the veteran player right now and in some cases playing beter then they are.

Add in the fact that you need to gain hundreds of ranks which takes hundreds to thousands of hours of gameplay in order to influence pip gain in a meaningful way and yes I’d say that’s penalizing. Doesn’t really promote people to play well, the carrot on the stick is raised to high, endless grind results in little to no pip gain causing players to endlessly be stuck at “low rank.” So everyday/month/year they get low pips and are always considered low rank. Not very motivating.

There is a price tag associated with pretty much anything. The currency may change but the price is always there. Choosing to not pay the price does not mean that one is being penalized by not having the thing to be purchased with that price.

The baseline for how things are attained are always measured in how fast someone can attain something.

And it took some people going on five years to get what they have now.