Guild Wars 2

I believe “It’s a ‘fun vampire’!” is the right way to describe the puzzle. Glad it doesn’t actually count for the event, just its own achievement.

I had the same bit of confusion. I’m assuming that we can complete this achievement after the ‘big event’ on Sunday.

Point 7 is why I only did Reaper’s Rumble twice. I’m not keen on PvP, but I wanted to at least participate in some way – the only way I could contribute and have my effort count was by attacking other players. The event, while not well designed, does have the right idea, though, for PvP. It’d just be nice if, for example, there were more ways to score, and there was some form of strategy other than “run to center, grab pumpkin, throw at crypt, then avoid being killed” or “run to center, attack anyone with pumpkin.”

By comparison, Lunatic Inquisition does provide for more scoring options that don’t necessarily require direct PvP combat, and does provide some additional strategic options. I can at least contribute to my team, and get on the board, without having to gank others.

Yep. It’s one of the reasons I gave up on the clock tower. There’s nothing like being in an instance with a dozen or more players, such that you cannot see where you’re going. The jumping puzzle isn’t needed for the overall event achievement, the reward for completing the jumping puzzle is trivial, and the fun of having a new jumping puzzle is overwhelmed by the frustration of having a jumping puzzle that’s harder than the ones already in the game and in which you’re in direct competition with other players.

Thanks! So, basically, once I can complete the It’s a Mad King’s World and Attend the Party achievements, I’ll be able to complete the Emissary of the Mad King achievement. That’s reassuring.

I’m glad the the clock tower doesn’t count toward the overall event achievement.

Doug.9628:

That feeling of getting to the top, honestly, is worth it

Try getting to the clock face and inexplicably getting bounced off of it. I guarantee you’ll find the sensation novel.

I’m in the same boat:
Emissary of the Mad King – 3 achievements.

However, I’ve completed the Halloween Huntin’, Halloween Events Completed, Trick or Treat bags opened, and Pumpkin Carving achievements, and I’m 3/4 on the It’s a Mad King’s World achievement. The only two achievements for which I’ve nothing are the Attend the Party and the Mad King’s Clock Tower achievements. I’ve been to all four locations in the Mad King’s World, as well, so either one of them just didn’t register or you actually need to complete the Mad King’s Clock Tower to complete the It’s a Mad King’s World achievement.

I’m resigned to my fate – I cannot complete the Mad King’s Clock Tower, despite all the time I spent trying, and so if that achievement is what’s limiting me from getting It’s a Mad King’s World or Emissary of the Mad King achievements, so be it.

Elzariel.8679:

I might be the oddball of the bunch in playing MMOs and not liking PvP, but I was wondering if there’s any part of the halloween event that doesn’t require you to fight other players in some form?
I’m fine if there isn’t any like that (its the usual way, I’m used to it), but if there is, I’d like to atleast try it out.

I’m with you – I tend to avoid PvP in MMOs, for several reasons, but there are parts of this holiday event that don’t require PvP combat.

• The mini-quest to complete the “Mad Memories” item
• Carving 150 pumpkins
• Eating 150 candy corn
• Opening 100 Trick or Treat bags
• Opening Haunted Doors, placed randomly throughout the various starting maps, and fighting holiday NPCs
• Participating in PvE dynamic events (used to enable passage to the Mad King’s Labyrinth)

Avoid the Lunatic Inquisition and Reaver’s Rumble events, and while the clock tower jumping puzzle isn’t PvP, it’s hours of tedium unless you’re a console gamer.

Why this event became more, rather than less, difficult than day-to-day events already in the game is beyond me.

Yes, during my one & only successful run to the top, which is why I gave up on this jumping puzzle.

I gave up on it. Never mind the ridiculous timer, the low visibility, the racial limitations, the “clock face bug”, or the lag. I’m done. I play MMOs precisely because I don’t enjoy the reflex-driven play of console games – I prefer something with more cerebral focus. I even tolerate the other jumping puzzles, because of the “puzzle” aspect.

There’s no real “puzzle” to this one, other than how anyone with accessibility needs, or without hours to kill while committing this puzzle to muscle memory, or without the willingness to tolerate completing the sequence only to be shafted when jumping at the clock face by an unexplainable bug, would find this fun. There’s no fun here, just relief at having to chew through this thing to get an achievement.

I enjoyed pretty much every other aspect, even the exploited PvP events, but I won’t be doing this aspect of the Halloween event.

Jorius.5617:

UPDATE: This is only happening on EU servers. I transferred to an US server as adviced on another post and I don’t have any lag problem.

I’m on the Anvil Rock server, and I get lag & disconnections – I don’t think this is affecting just EU servers.

For the last two days, I’ve been getting frequent game lag and disconnections. Before the day before yesterday (10/12/2012), I noticed nothing like this – now, I get dropped fairly regularly even while running around Queensdale.

Right now, the Windows client does not detect default audio device changes – if, for example, I started the Guild Wars 2 client in Windows 7 while my default audio device was set to my USB headphones, and then used the Playback tab from the Sound dialog box in Windows 7 to switch the default audio device to my speakers, the Guild Wars 2 client continues to use my USB headphones as its playback device.

My suggestion is that the Guild Wars 2 client for Windows should either detect when the default audio device has changed (say, keep an eye out for WINMM_DEVICECHANGE), and use the appropriate default audio device, or provide an option in the Options dialog to specify an audio device to be used by Guild Wars 2.

Same here – salvage cloth armor & rags from level 70+ areas has worked for me, but the volume isn’t very high. (Admittedly, I haven’t aggressively looked for them yet, so YMMV.)

…and gets so little in return. Yep, it’s frustrating, all right, and it’ll remain so until a number of issues regarding the economy are resolved.

I’d be happy if I could just sell food to vendors. As it is now, cooking is just a huge credit sink until you can make dyes and Omnomberry Bars.

kiba.2768:

i’ve had the opposite experience with crafting. now having taken 3 crafts to 400, i am seeing the coin roll in. as in 2g at the end of my playing session for the day. this is in addition to the de chains i did(coincidentally ‘farming’ my mats) earning me about 1g per 2 hours of play. i don’t do the holy trinity of orr like many players do, either. otherwise i’d be earning close to 1.5g/hr.

what i can agree with is that crafting under 275 will get you nothing in profit. just salv your crafted items and save them for later. once you start making rares/exotics then you can see the profit margin increase

Unfortunately, you’re right – because of the mess that the TP is in currently, no one’s buying anything mid-level. You need to be making rare or exotic items, at a minimum, to really sell, or produce something that another profession needs to level to actually make money on the TP. Crafting’s difficult right now because of a number of issues, but I’m hoping it will improve over time.

And, please, update this thread – for chefs, our only real money-making options are dyes and Omnomberry Bars, as pretty much every other foodstuff is on TP for a few copper each.

Yep. Don’t thank people for healing you in events – that’s what does it for me. A quick “ty”, 6-7 times in succession, and suddenly you can’t chat at all for a few minutes.

I have over 90 locked chests, and 9 unlocked chests, in my bank. I received one key in the last, what, five days? I’m not certain what’s with the adjusted drop rate, but as the chests go for 2c or so on the Trading Post, there’s no real rush at this point to unlock them.

I figure that, soon, I can just buy a stack of 250 chests for 5s – or sell a stack, at the rate I’m getting them.

Omega Mayhem.7163:

Really? Another thread about bots?

They’re going to keep coming, too. The “official” thread about botting was closed, players are still up in arms about the blatant and pervasive botting, and ArenaNet doesn’t appear to be doing enough about it. Players will post, moderators will close, but the issue won’t go away until the botters go away.

Gabi.5264:

You hit the nail on the head my friend, many of us have the same disheartening feeling right now, yet i still hope Anet will get their way around and fix some of the issues, especially the endgame.

However i believe in about 30 minutes this post will be deleted and me and you both will get infracted.

I typically consider myself a reasonable forum denizen, and I received my first “infraction” today because I mentioned botting in a post about the Ranger profession (the most commonly used profession by bots) – a moderator decided my post was off-topic, oddly.
The botting is getting out of hand, and ArenaNet just doesn’t seem to have a handle on it. Unless they can rope in the bot army, the game becomes yet another MMO destroyed by botting in short order.

“Supply and demand” is all well and good, but the figures are starting to get loopy. The attached (and cropped) screenshot is what the Trading Post looks like to a player on the Anvil Rock server as of about 15 minutes ago.

All for it, and it sounds like such a trivial option to add, too.

Very interested, but if the botting problem isn’t dealt with soon, I’ll be playing it alone.

And, yes, this game is still worlds better than SWTOR. The endgame is a bit restricted here, but at least there is an endgame…

Sunreva.8714:

Honestly the rock/fireworks trick is a waste of your own time. Yes it works on the bots, but really, whats the point? You’re only impeding their progress for maybe and hour, they eventually die (come back without the rock/firearms) and/or someone checks on the computer and simply removes it from their hands.

It would give us something to do other than venting our spleen on the forums. It’s frustrating as heck to watch veritable armies of botters farm an area – something, anything, to do that would even momentarily irritate a botter provides an outlet of some form.

I agree with you – ArenaNet really needs to act, quickly and decisively, to shut down botters – but there is some value in irritating them until then.

Mrkraken.6791:

ty for informing about the rock idea! I know just where a rock is in cursed to try this and I’m excited to see as it would be funny.

My only reason to state they weren’t looting (least the ones I saw) they never put themselves on top of the enemy. I was watching for them to move onto enemy for auto-loot, however they use ranged and just wander in a circle; never approach an enemy.
goes to get a rock

Agreed – I think I have a new hobby in Cursed Shore now.

Honest players were adversely affected by the anti-exploiting system, and it didn’t slow the bots down enough to matter, so ArenaNet backed out the restrictions a bit.

Hopefully, ArenaNet has something else up their sleeves to deal with the rampant botting.

You’ll notice my reply in that thread, just a few posts above the closure note you posted.

But, you missed the closure, didn’t understand that folks still need an outlet to complain about the rampant botting, and somehow didn’t realize that I didn’t make this thread? Wow.

Folks are going to continue posting about rampant botting until ArenaNet does something that has an actual impact – or they’re going to move on to other games. As it gets out of hand, the moderators will close threads as needed. Given that I originally replied to the person who opened the thread to say “don’t do that – you’ll get banned – and just go play,” you’re wasting not just effort, but looking none too good in the process.

It’s not your job. Go play.

While I know that your advice is well-meaning, none of that information is going to offset the damage being done to the game by the rampant botting. Until the botting is reined in, playing this game is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

That “massive thread” is now closed to comments. Or did you miss that, too?

Careful – I’ve already had a reply pulled because I had the temerity of posting a screenshot that contained 15 rangers, in identical gear and with the same pet, botting in Cursed Shore. They’re none too keen on folks actually identifying botters in the forums.

Report on them, try not to feel the futility, and hopefully hang on until ArenaNet figures out how to deal with the bot army.

Scritt Bot-Farmer.

I’m on Anvil Rock. I see more bots than people in the high level areas, and rarely encounter people in the mid-level areas.

Lornar’s Pass doesn’t get any more solo than it is right now on Anvil Rock, and I might as well be playing solo in Cursed Shore, because Cursed Shore is so full of bots. I’m almost ready to start farming bot kills – tap, let the bots kill, loot, repeat – just to break the monotony.

This game does not reward honest play. Period. If you want to enjoy the high life in this game, you must either:

• Buy gems from ArenaNet and convert them into gold;
• Buy gold from gold sellers;
• Gamble at the Mystic Forge, or;
• Run a bot army.

If you’re silly enough to think that you’re going to get rich by studious participation in events, diligent gathering, and busy crafting, well, go for it, I guess. Right now, though, the bots have owned this game in its entirety, and those willing to buy gold from bots get a much better rate than buying it from ArenaNet.

I’m still here at Cursed Shore, observing two groups of bots – at least 15-20 of them, total – jockeying for position between two apparently “prime” farming spots.

It’s ridiculous. There’s no point in selling anything on the Trading Post. Buying anything from the Trading Post means you’re giving those bots gold to sell. Attempting to gather your own materials & gold is futile, as there are so many bots farming the high-level maps that your returns are nearly useless.

The only reason I haven’t yet gone back to another MMO is that you’re at least aware of the problem, but the pressure is mounting.

Do something about it – not spew platitudes, not reassure us that there’s something going on behind the scenes, but direct, visible action. It’s not hard to have an ArenaNet employee run around and identify groups of bots – we do it all day. Unlike you, though, we cannot then give them a 72-hour ban (or worse.) At the very least, do something about the Trading Post – legitimate players are being cut off from any real financial progress while these bots destroy the economy.

Asacledhae.2650:

Do you honestly think reporting 60+ bots / day is a natural thing to do? Sorry to disturb your “We’re working on it” utopia, but whatever you’re doing, do it FAST, as it’s starting to literally disturb our fun, not to mention the impacts of the game’s economy if they start “selling high” in order to force people to buy gold.

Cannot be emphasized enough. Without any hyperbole, the botting is destroying the economy here on Anvil Rock, and as the end game is so focused on gathering resources, the bots all over Cursed Shore, Malchor’s Leap, and Straits of Devastation make it even worse.

And it’s not just bots in game, either. Thanks to the “man in the middle” hacks on the Trading Post, it’s getting harder for humans to actually trade – you need to have a computer to manage buy orders now, thanks to the virtual daytraders.

I’m seeing bots pretty much wherever a dynamic event occurs with a predictable and rapid frequency. I just watched a bot constantly attack a corner in Jeb’s Wheatfield, in Queensdale, for half an hour because, of course, that’s one of the spots where the wurms pop up during a dynamic event.

The Trading Post is also reflecting the damage bots are doing to the economy – you can pretty much forget making gold by selling drops. Prices are crashing, and thanks to TP manipulation by external software, a human can easily be stomped in both buying & selling.

If ArenaNet can’t get a handle on both botting and TP manipulation, humans won’t be able to play this game in a matter of weeks.

…you get up, log in, wave to the neighbood bot, and wonder once again why you can’t sell anything on TP for more than 1c above vendor price…

I, too, am curious about this pressure to include mounts. I honestly hope mounts aren’t introduced – we move more than quickly enough to handle short distance navigation, and waypoints provide ample long distance navigation. Maps are designed to take both short and long distance navigation into account when dealing with discovery, respawning, and so on.

There’s no reason to somehow force mounts into the world – it would break game mechanics that are clearly working. If they’re introduced as a cosmetic item, and not as a travel aid, I’m OK with that. Otherwise, skip it – mounts aren’t worth breaking game mechanics. Between the bugs, the bots, and the TP robots, the game has enough to deal with right now.

Botting is ridiculous at this point – I’m not just seeing it in the usual areas, like Cursed Shore, but in the beginning areas as well. Queensdale has an entire crop of bots, including multi-box bots, that are not just making it difficult to participate in dynamic events, but are also destroying any possibility of using the Trading Post to make money in-game.

Between bots flooding the TP and TP hackers pounding it with buy orders, it’s getting to the point where it’s nearly impossible for a human to play the game and succeed. They’re killing your game.

Bots I’ve observed and reported continue, day after day, to show up and perform their repetitive damage. Without quick and decisive action, your game is going to be slowly dismantled, as bots will make it impossible for humans to play competitively – I’ve watched other games grind to a halt for months because of botting, like Aion.

Please, you need to step up your response time. A bot can do significant harm in this game in a matter of hours – you can’t take days to respond.

I’m also observing that the “World vs. World” forum is also presenting in German on the English localized version of the web site.

Add to that the fact that the market is being manipulated by botters using tools to automatically buy & sell on the TP, and you’re seeing “daytrading” in action.

Dobbs is, indeed, still bugged – can’t complete that map without getting the gate unlocked.

It is, indeed, still bugged. Blew up three towers, and as a result I’m “stuck” – Demolitionist Tonn won’t talk to me, his pack marmox is just standing next to the Wyld Hunt Stewards, and both tasks, “Help Tonn find and destroy the undead towers” and “Clear the beach of undead”, are checked & greyed. Can’t complete the mission, can’t leave the mission.

Irritating, as it’s a personal story quest.