Guild Wars 2

Malchior.5042:

Yup, I feel Dredge and rewards have made their presence known. Further debate and discussion on individual proposals can occur while we seek out further evolutions.

If you don’t mind Chris, I’d like to pose a question to the thread participants.

For any players of the original Guild Wars, what event in Guild Wars history would you like to see relived as a Fractal? This could be any event from those that players experienced in the actual game, to other events within the lore, before the time period of the actual game.

Let’s try to hold to the existing proposal format, so everyone can easily process the proposals.

1.) Closer to the Stars — the Factions ascension mission — from the standpoint of lore, the aspects, the limited time to get the bonus, it was probably my all time favorite GW1 mission and it would seem to translate well to a Fractal.

2.) Restore the Temple of War — a quest from the realm of Balthazar in the Fissures of Woe. It is first an invasion mission that consisted of fighting patrols of enemies while making headway into the forge, followed by a contained defense of the temple against waves of invaders. It would also seem to fit the format of a Fractal. (Being able to use obsidian shards and ecto at the forge once you succeed could be made into a great throwback to the original, and a nice reward, while adding a bit of variety to the instance — or use this forge instead of the mystic forge to salvage fractal rings/weapons.)

3.) This doesn’t truly fit the above proposal, but as a fun thing — the opposite of the Urban Fractal. Let us fight as humans defending the wall and defending the boss at the end fight against the Charr warbands. I can’t help it, I’m a Separatist at heart

Nike.2631:

I honestly don’t see ‘re-rolling’ for first fractal as all that hard to kill.

Arrange things so each account holds in memory what tier one fractal you last generated by starting a run. When you finish a Tier 1 fractal you launched it becomes blank/null, ready to receive a randomly generated new scenario the next time you start a run. But, as long as there is an old scenario waiting there, that is the only Fractal you will ever see when you are the person who opens the initial gate from Mistlock Observatory. New/first-time characters are assigned a random scenario from a list of tier one fractals that does not include the Swamp as a possible result (other troublesomely fast tier 1 scenarios introduced later can also be excluded). This prevents recruiting newbies solely for the purpose of trying to game their initial roll.

Done. Re-rolling is dead. Long live facing the challenges presented.

Is doing away with the re-roll something that is really wanted or needed? If so, why? It seems like a forced control step where none is really needed. Most of my teams don’t reroll, but some few do; in thinking about it it’s mostly high-level groups that choose to re-roll, low levels just play what is presented. Is it truly an issue?

Moon.7310:

Using fractals to tell story:

Proposal Overview
Fractals should be used to tell as more about the lore/history of Tyria.

Goal of Proposal
Increase the amount of lore used for the fractals and creating new fractals which story and background informations. This is such a good oppertunity to tell us about things that happende before GW2, things that could happen in the future, things of an alternate version of Tyria.

Proposal Functionality
Existing fractals:
I think the fractals should have some more story, like what is this underwater fractal thing, what happened in this strange rata-sum version, is it ascalon we are over-running? It would be great if we got some more informations about them while doing them, either by getting more informations from Dessa or by some writings found in them or NPCs you could talk to.

New fractals:

• There could be fractals which tell us about events that happened between GW1 and GW2
• Fractals that tell us about things that happened even before GW1
• Fractals telling alternate versions of history: I would especially love to see a fractal where we help Shiro to kill the Emporer (still a great fan of Shiro )
• Fractals about a possible future: Everything is overrun by Scarlet (sorry, I just had to write that here, since I like here even if so many hate her^^)
  I’ll complete the list here with this examples, since I could go on about this for a long time.

Associated Risks
Of course people might not care about lore/story, making it a bit of wasted time for you devs, but I still think many would think it a nice addition and if it leads to new fractals everyone should be happy.

The problem that comes up is that people are always in a hurry to get through the Fractals. Play! Get the Reward! There’s no time to stop and watch cutscenes or speak with NPCs. Players already escape out of the very brief cutscenes that currently exist.

But I’d love more lore, too. Perhaps an instance along the lines of Dessa’s Library where players could go to learn more about the lore behind the Fractal — it could use books like the book carts in DR or Ebonhawke, Holograms like those used by Vorpp, an NPC lab assistant, complaining about the long hours or raving about the latest discovery who is available to answer questions… The point is while we are with a team and in the throes of battle is probably not the best time to do lore research, and Fractals are a bit difficult to solo to get to an end spot where it would make sense to have the lore placed. Surely Dessa is already compiling some of the information somewhere and if that is outside the Fractal the lore bugs could find what they’re looking for and others wouldn’t be held up in their game play.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Asko.4120:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Shinki.8045:

Conski Deshan.2057:

snip.

Agreed. Discussing the fact the dredge is frustrating and takes a long time barely helps the process of Fractal evolution beyond the idea that people dislike long time gates. Dredge can be fixed to the liking of players and devs alike, getting there should be part of the evolution of fractals.

One topic I’m not sure if someone has brought up or not, but would solve some of the rewards/currency issues players are having:

A vendor that gets unlocked after completion of the final Fractal. This vendor has things that can be bought based on the difficulty that has been completed, and bought using fractals currency primarily (depending on the value of the item.) As an added way to make it interesting, have the available wares vary depending on what fractals people ran through especially the first one.

Pie in the sky idea: Sell stat infusions from these vendors, or dye kits to color existing fractal weapons, or some other way to show prestige from completing difficult content.

The concerns, comments and feedback surrounding Dredge are something that we are well aware of. Thank you very much for giving us further insight into this area but our time as a CDI on this topic is better spent elsewhere.

Chris

I don’t mean to sound like a jerk, but if you are ‘well aware of’ the player displeasement with the current implementation of the dredge fractal, why haven’t you done anything about it for the last year?
I can’t even begin to count all the topics opened to voice player concerns about the fractal and still there has been no change. Actually that is not entirely true, you have ‘fixed’ numerous tricks players used to help making the fractal slightly shorter.
I even remember a developer quote that said something like ‘we are looking into options to help reduce the length of the unnecessarily long fractal (dredge)’ way before the Fractured patch but the opposite was done

Hi Asko,

I would like to clarify that we are aware of the feedback both from this thread and before. We try to stop on top of all feedback from all aspects of the game. Jumping from this statement to ‘why isn’t it fixed’ is not a topic for this CDI nor any moving forward.

Chris

Respectfully: Why isn’t it at topic for discussion? There must be some internal reason; and perhaps many more than one. If it is simply that the resources have not yet been available then that is something that I can accept. If there are other, deeper reasons I would like to know what they are. For me this is important information and not some sort of punitive stance. It would make a difference to the discussion going forward.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I would like us to start of by listing the top three things we would like to see evolved in Fractal Design. Idea proposals can come after this stage.

Chris

1.) Infusions and their removal from equipment
2.) Reward Matrix
3.) Time equity between individual instances

Make the sought after Fractal rewards always viable:

Duplicate rings and weapons, or items with a stat set that the player cannot use, currently have no value; they are meaningless drops. If Fractal specific rewards are to remain account bound then making the rings and weapons eligible for salvage or forging gives some measure of value back to the drops.

Right now LA is a new PvE zone. Of course it won’t last that way, but for the moment it is definitely a new PvE zone.

Palador.2170:

I’m disappointed, but I expected to be.

I want to poke around, and take on solo fights. Be the wandering hero that finds the stray person trapped in the rubble and pulls them to safety.

I tried the events normally at first. It’s zergy, and I hate that. Too much stuff going on at once, and trying to track it all gives me a headache fast. (It’s one reason I don’t like to team.) I also felt like I wasn’t really making any difference at all unless I stayed on Rez detail, at which point I wasn’t really getting anything for my efforts.

Taking off on my own, I found that I kept running into groups too tough for me to take out alone. So, no poking around or exploring for me. I might try that again later, but… very disappointed.

I’ve found that somewhere between these two is the best — go wandering with a party instead of completely solo and see how many citizens you can save. I know that our wandering party made a big difference to our server last night.

cesmode.4257:

Whole bunch of stuff about being funneled, zerging, auto attacking and poor story telling

If you simply “funneled” into LA and didn’t wander through the refugee camps, couldn’t be bothered to listen to the NPC conversations that they were carrying on, or actively press the talk buttons with NPCs to get the story then you probably shouldn’t complain about the story telling here. It’s actually rich and varied, from the quaggans who have lost their homes and are reluctantly making plans to move further South, to the soldier who is vowing vengeance, from Marjory and Kasmeer discussing whether it’s worth it to go back in and fight again to the soldier who is glad to have the refugees so near vigil camp so that he can sleep in his own bed, to the little robot who wants to be a tank… The story is some of the best we’ve seen. Did you see Evon Gnashblade close the Asura gate on the citizens trying to escape LA?

Everyone complained about them putting short-stories on the website so they’ve put the stories back in game, and they are wonderful! Told in bits and pieces, but it’s there for anyone who wants to bother themselves to find it.

The achievements are also better than what we saw at the beginning of LS — it isn’t do this one thing 15 times, instead it’s do 15 different things one time. You can spend a cycle of Under Attack saving civilians, then the next defending way points or killing champions. Yes, to finish the meta you have to play Under Attack more than one time, but you can decide to experience it differently each time you play it, even choosing where you enter into the city and defending/counterattacking based on where you come in. My achievement tab is filling up just by playing the game.

The Zergs are not effective and are actually detrimental to success. Eight to twelve people can succeed where 50 will fail, simply because of the up-scaling. You can zerg or you can grab a couple of guild groups and have tons of fun and success both. If you’re going to blame A-Net for the zerg, then blame them for getting players in the habit of zerging early in the game’s history. Right now they are trying, pretty heavy handedly, to change that. It remains to be seen if they will be successful.

All in all this is a great update. The story rocks, the artwork is beautiful, and they’ve managed to involve me and many other players on an emotional level.

It would be very nice to know.

This would be very helpful, and it would be great for dungeon paths.

+1

Belzebu.3912:

Then the problem would be the animations.
For example, you are a norn and want to change to a sylvari, but only your skin changes, so you’ll still have the norn racial skills, those could have issues if cast in a sylvari skin.

But so far your idea is the most plausible one.

Good point, and one I had actually considered before making my post and deciding that it could work anyway.

I don’t know how many times in the game my Asura has used a Charzooka while battling against Jormag. I know that most of the human skills and all of the Norn skills are form skills, and all of the races already change form in the open world. Remember there are heart areas that require the player to become the snow leopard which is one of the Norn elite skills, guild missions require us to appear as chickens or bears, there are lots of places that we change into other forms. My point is that most of the animations already exist in the game for all races. In addition, since PvP doesn’t allow the use of racial skills it would be possible to add or use any animation that was already in the game to cover any that didn’t already exist, since the animations would not need to be recognized or countered by other players.

The other thing I had considered but not included in my original post was cultural armor. I would expect if something along this line were to be included in the game that the player could only display the cultural armor of the race his character was currently presenting. If my human born character were currently presenting as a Charr they could only wear Charr cultural armor. They might own other cultural armor, but they would not be able to wear it — doing so would break the racial illusion.

Personally, I would be willing to accept some restrictions to get my character to appear as I would like to see it. I know very few people who actually use racial skills. Cultural armor is another matter

I have seen many threads asking for a race change item in the gemstore and I completely understand the arguments against it because of things like the personal story and racial skills. These arguments make perfect sense.

Therefore, I request a contract with Lyssa, the Goddess of Beauty and Illusion (which by the way is killer — is all beauty illusion?) that would allow me to change only my appearance. All else — story, racial skills, home instance and any other intricate personal element — would remain exactly the same, only the outward appearance and animations would change. I understand that this goes beyond the scope of the total make-over kit and I would be willing to pay more for it.

Thank you for your consideration.

Antara.3189:

Espionage.3685:

Antara.3189:

The point is blatant. It’s the fact that an area was defined as a central point for all players to conveniently utilize any of the services that the game offers in one location without having to travel all around tyria. Everyone also had a central location to access every part of the game.

Now you’re forced to travel to different areas or pay for convenience. It should be noted that it was officially stated all essential services would be moved to the Vigil Keep. I would think Trait reset, Crafting, Laurel Merchants were all part of that line of essential services.

Also remember the point that with many players congregated in one area gave players with questions a valuable recource to quickly ask a question, now the player base is split amongst many areas. Not everyone uses wiki, so again, think outside your own preferences.

LA was catastrophically attacked and destroyed; you expect all NPCs to move everything in a convenient manner to the new ideal location just like that? Whether ArenaNet had shady intentions or not, I believe the current state of the NPCs to be pretty expected from a lore-standpoint (well, the NPCs are a bit too-managed imo if anything, but whatever).

The Captain’s Airship, not being destroyed or affected by the LA attack, is probably in the same condition it’s been in, and is only now allowing players to enter to use its services. It being the “Captain’s” Airship and it being a really convenient area designed likely only for said Captain, it makes sense for it to be a VIP area, not a “everyone enter for free anytime” zone, hence why you need to have a paid ticket to get in. Consider it an act of kindness that you’re allowed in for free if you’re lucky to get a free ticket drop :p

General point being, from a lore-standpoint, I think things are fine.

I also hardly consider trait resets and Laruel merchants essential, but that’s mainly based on my own experience (I use one or the other maybe once every two weeks or so; in other words, it’s rare).

On a lore perspective, how did a floating ship magically appear with all essential services? Where has this ship been in the past?
This isn’t a lore issue, this is a game services issue.

If we are going to put it to lore instead of to game service then why is Captain Kiel forcing the heroes, her best hope of driving out the invaders, saving her citizens, rebuilding her cities to PAY to create the tools that they need to carry out these endeavors.

People who argue that you do not need a crafting station near the mystic forge apparently didn’t attempt to create the completed backpiece that is one of the rewards for this LS segment. Creating that backpiece requires crafted items to be thrown into the forge. First this, then that, then something else… Having a crafting table near a mystic forge certainly would make it more convenient.

I don’t have screenshots but I thought it was not at all aesthetically pleasing. It is the aetherblade ship from the jump puzzle in Gendarran Fields. Inside the ship are the crafting stations, and they are the see-through guild summons crafting tables — they look like the should be a par of the “Super” skin release from SAB. The two things don’t go together at all.

It’s very small — can’t imagine it with several players there at once. Personally, I don’t ever want to go back there at all.

They really should make it Leather no matter the profession. We need some uses for leather.

Actually from overhearing that discussion with Evon I’d say it’s gonna be Tank-O-Tron.

No crafting stations at Vigil Keep is a quality of life downgrade for me and many other players. I would prefer not to clog my server’s borderland map with non-combatants, but this is what will happen.

Dawn and Eternity. And congratulations no matter what they are!

Hex.6371:

What was so good about Guild Wars 2 when it first launched in comparison to now, why does everyone seem to be sour towards its updated content, and do I have a reason to be excited about sitting down and getting back into it?

I think the biggest problem was that the game didn’t meet the expectations so many of us had for it. At release it was all shiny and new — the dynamic events were fun and engaging, the map was huge and beautiful and still being uncovered. Fast forward a couple of months and the dynamic events were repeats of the things we had already done with other characters a few weeks earlier, or they were stalled and reset only at the weekly patch time. Some of the longest and most involved DE’s, things like the battle with the ogres in Fields of Ruin or the Hirathi Hinterlands event chains just didn’t work. Nothing new was happening in the world of dynamic events, there were nasty surprises like guesting not working cross-region, and vertical progression being introduced with ascended gear. There was no challenge available for groups/guilds wanting to play together, no content for more than a party of 5, they weren’t even talking about how to help guilds play together.

Honestly, things in game are better now. The living story updates give new events, bosses, and rewards, the achievement chests pop up every so often with surprise rewards, there are guild missions and other challenging content that requires coordination and organization. Even the landscape and map zones change — so do the NPC conversations in some of the towns. The world feels more alive. Most of the dynamic events are up and working and not getting stalled in the middle. You can start the Fields of Ruin ogre event chain and run with it — probably 6 or 7 dynamic events long — all the way to the end.

There are still problems that have to be fixed, no question about that. There are still quality of life issues that could make the game far better. But it is much more playable right now than it was in October-November last year.

The main thing is to not zero in on just one manner of play — run some dungeons, increase your fractal level, kill Tequatl, do some dynamic events, play the living story, do some missions with your guild. There’s quite a lot to do and if you don’t fall into the champ train mindset it is quite an enjoyable game right now.

The current bonus is not pay to win but it is pay for advantage. The problem being if they can introduce this, and ignore the outcry of their players, what is next? They have refused to comment in any way, and that is the most unacceptable thing they could do. The bonus on this pick either shouldn’t exist or it should be on every orichalcum pick in the game.

I will fight to the death for the people of Lions Arch, the Lion statue and the Crows Nest Tavern. To Arms!

That video is killer — definitely got me excited for what is to come. And a bit upset — feels kinda like losing Old Ascalon.

Alfador.7649:

Buttercup.5871:

You know that Scarlet is going to be gone in a month right? No more invasions and such? No more Scarlett’s lair. No more sprockets. Only from the pick. And the pick probably provides 0.1% of the current supply.

Scarlet will be gone. Watchwork stuff may go with it. There will still be a node in everyone’s home instance who did the meta (plenty). There will still be people out there with picks generating sprockets for the market.
Go look at the price of quartz crystals. There is no way to get those except nodes, plenty of people are making celestial armor, and even before wintersday dumped a bunch on people, the price for those PEAKED at 3 silver. These are unlikely to ever even go that high. there is ZERO basis to assume they will except for misunderstanding economics and wishful thinking.

All of this is irrelevant to the point of the thread. Why is A-Net ignoring the outcry from people who care about and use the gem store? Are they just waiting for the clamor to stop with no change?

My own feeling is that they are waiting to see how many of us who have a problem with the item continue to use the gemstore anyway and how many completely stop. Bean counting — that’s why there’s been no response. They’re trying to decide if it is monetarily worthwhile to make offers like this.

Vol.7601:

“and further evaluate what those requirements will be”

I only hope that you do not lessen it further. 30 ranks is nothing when you consider the time investment it takes to get the other components in the legendary.

Heck, it should cost even more. 50 ranks and 1000-1500 badges (considering you get so many free ones in achievement boxes)

I would prefer that they remove badges from achievement chests and have them earned instead of tying to rank. When the game first launched I played in WvW quite often, but then there were no ranks or WXP to be earned. WvW no longer interests me, precisely because of the ranks/abilites and the huge vertical progression that was introduced with them. I hate what WvW has become. “No! Only commanders drop siege — get off the catapult if you don’t have mastery — can we get people with mastery to operate the ram that we’re kittening about someone besides the commander dropping?!?”

Valandil Dragonhart.2371:

Nike are you quite finished breaking down my post?

Given the lack of dev responses forum-wide, no I don’t think it’s too much to ask for some acknowledgement of an idea that is posted. Further elaboration can be given if needed and expanded upon after that (ie. collaboration), but I want to know I’m being heard first and foremost. Anything that a dev says ’they’ve read’ can be just glanced over without a second thought. You should be bright enough to see that.

Secondly, I don’t really appreciate the condescending tone of your reply to me being in another time zone. This puts me on edge, because those that live in the US and post during the US working hours times are most likely to be responded to. If you’re in among the flood of responses with a critical idea that you think may work that is in among the middle of a sea of posts between dev’s red posts, you’re not likely to be seen at all. Again, it’s not just me with this issue, it’s those in similar circumstances, like I’ve seen in the CDI’s up till this one. Quite a few brilliant ideas I saw come out of those, and only a few were actually acknowledged as being dev-good.

So, tell me, what’s the point of speaking if you stand the chance of not being heard? Speak louder? Stand the chance of being infracted/banned. I get it; you, videoboy, gidorah and a few others are in the dev’s lap right now because you’re seen as being the in-crowd. I’m not the only one who sees this, anyone who responded with the same ‘cliquey’ references has sniffed it out too. This is what makes us nervous. We stand the chance of not being the same priority as the ones responded to most often.

The dev’s are most at fault for this, whether they realise it or not. They open up lines of communication only to apparently ‘hear’ select voices and not everyone. It kind of goes against what the CDI symbolises.

I’ve never had a dev respond to me, and yet I’ve seen ideas that I’ve offered first come into play in the discussions from both the devs and from other players. I think that’s good enough, since it means that I’m contributing on some level. Chris has said that he reads every post, but there’s no way he can respond to every post. You should probably take that at face value.

I’m also not naive enough to believe that I am the only person that a particular idea occurs to, regardless of who types it first. We’re all playing the same game, we’re all posting in the same thread, it makes sense that our thoughts will sometimes go down the same paths.

If you are here because you want a dev to make a post responding to your input then you should probably question your own motivations. The point isn’t the response here, it’s having some small impact on the game, or the system or even the CDI process itself.

I love these skins, or would if they didn’t have the heart in the middle of them. If they had a piece of ebony, or a light, or an onyx, or anything that didn’t just look silly I’d be all over them.

Were they trying to appeal to female players? If so, please A-Net, just give us pants.

You can also send it via mail to a friend that you trust and ask them to hit the “Return to Sender” button on the mail.

Arghore.8340:

Now addressing these people themselves. While I can see how a discussion on how to discuss may feel like ‘work’, having a good simple and easy procedural way to go about these CDI discussions is one of the ways to deal with the issues you put forth…

You are less likely to join in on an already lengthy discussion, that is addressing all sorts of things (aka chaos), making your own posts feel like they are being ignored, because the discussion of more vocal others is dominating the ‘issue’ at hand (aka. you post a suggestion about story/lore progression, which feels like it’s being ignored, because the current discussion in the thread is largely about skill progression). And you may also feel somewhat ignored by the dev’s (unjustified in my views => ) who may only have some lunch time available and end up talking to people that happen to be on the forum at that particular time, joining in on the discussion at hand (aka. the skill progression one running, see example in () just above here).

I feel your ‘complaints’ to this thread are justified (as they are on topic), but at the same time I feel they are not entirely fair. To address a few in no particular order:

- I don’t want to talk about, how to talk about things. Understandable sure, but if we come to a good simple structure for these discussions, you will be much more likely to find your way ‘to the fun part’.

- I feel discussion is dominated by a few, understandable just critique, but if we don’t find a way to guide the discussion in a more appropriate format, how will we combat this? Being able to bring this up in this discussion clearly shows this discussion is trying to do you justice.

- I feel like being steered away from the main things, very true! But at the same time, this discussion helps us all to come to a format that may well make sure that we stay ‘on issue’ better. It might make the discussion less chaotic, more easily pinpoint and discuss certain things, and thus, supply a more readily suggestion and with that a possibly faster adaptation of the solution and implementation in the game.

- I don’t like discussing procedural stuff, fair enough, but I like it! So why should your preference be leading, aren’t you just saying you don’t like it when other people dictate the discussion for you? So, your solution is to have yourself dominate what is discussed instead?!? (not meant in an offensive way, but merely mirroring how you seem to contradict yourselves)

- Anet should do this, and not the community | we should see Anet do something with our comments: if you hang around this forum long enough you should know how that will pan out. And this discussion in particular lets the community come up with a way to go about these discussions, and thus be accepted as the way to do this more readily. Also, the feedback from this discussion will more then likely be implemented directly for the next CDI, while any suggestions on the game will likely take a 3months (if not more) implementation cycle.

! So yes! Your comments are justifiable and if this thread wouldn’t have been here, you wouldn’t have been able to voice them. This in itself justifies this thread. More over, the whole idea of this thread is to come to the best procedure that will benefit us all in this discussion, it may not be what you like to discuss right now, but it does give you the opportunity to contribute to how you (and all of us) will discuss things in the future. And resolve the issues you also seem to be having with the way things are going now…

While you may not have the answers to these things, or does not like to discuss this sort of ‘workflow’ discussions. There are others that may well do, and giving them the opportunity to solve these issues for you, should be worth it. In this respect I am reminded of the roles in innovation processes, there are those that see the troubles and those that solve them. More then often these are not the same people, but you need both of them. So this was not an attack on the issues you raised, as I think they are justified! But at the same time, if these are issues for you, give others the opportunity to deal with them, so we can all benefit in the end (this last mainly to the unfair comment that this whole thread shouldn’t be here, which I think just isn’t true)

Your posts definitely show the need for having a format. I would have a much better chance of finding your good ideas if your posts were concise, or if there were a bulleted list or a summary.

Gulesave.5073:

(1)

If you can deliver your core thought in a couple of one-liners *&(#$^!@ LEAD WITH THAT.

This, but further: If you can make your point in just a few sentences, that’s all you need. If the rest is optional, make the choice and cut it out.

It works well when Chris asks for posts in a specific format. People generally fall in line. Also, we need to keep the thread community caught up and focused.

I suggest replacing the CDI thread whenever focus is changed by the dev.

For example, if Chris thinks we’ve covered the current base and wants to narrow discussion down to such-and-such, the old CDI X Phase Y thread would be closed and temporarily stickied. He would then create CDI X Phase Z. His opening post would summarize the current direction of discussion, then set goals and a desired post format for the new phase.

(2)
I like back-and-forth in topic selection. The final topic should have the approval of both sides.

The major problem that I see with this is that not everyone has the ability to visit the forums everyday. Consequently, a reader may have something very viable, creative or insightful to add, but find the thread already closed and the discussion gone in another direction.

Closing threads is bad. Threaded discussion is good and, while it is beyond the current ability of these forums, it is something that should be strongly considered.

Let’s see if I can get this new format down:

As a player genuinely interested in providing collaboration where it is most relevant and needed I would like A-Net to choose the topics for the CDI which will allow the developers to focus discussion where they feel it is most beneficial to them right now.

Players are always able to start a thread on any topic, and developers do visit those threads and take ideas from them but, for now at least, the CDI is the only thread where the devs choose the topic and ask us, as players, to provide input, ideas and to brainstorm solutions.

The story method seems a very viable solution to keeping ideas clear, concise and easy to read.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

No, they aren’t functionally the same. They have different functions. One gathers ore with a chance at gemstones, the other gathers ore and a chance of gemstones or sprockets. Different functions.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

While I agree that the new pick is walking a thin line, there’s no real disrespect in the Gem Store. All items are meant for conveniences, and require no real world money to purchase. Getting mad that a current item is better than your previously purchased one, is like getting mad at Toyota because their new 2014 Corolla is better than your 2010 one. It’s just silly.

Nonsense. It isn’t like that at all. This is a pixelated set of programing code that doesn’t get better or worse as “milage” is applied, it gets better or worse as the devs decree it. There aren’t higher product costs, there aren’t more safety features, there isn’t anything except arbitrary developer decision, and it’s a bad decision.

Like the OP I’ve bought a lot of infinite gathering tools. In my mind this isn’t a thin red line, it’s a gaping chasm and clearly pay to win unless they make every orichulcum level pick in the game do the exact same thing. It’s not okay.

Xista.7391:

This isn’t P2W people. You aren’t winning the game by getting a few more mats from a node.

This, however, is a slap to the face to people who bought previous mining picks.

Any extra advantage, not cosmetic or convenience but actual advantage, is pay to win and shouldn’t be in the gemstore.

If one pick has the ability to generate sprockets then every pick of a certain level, whether bought through the gemstore or purchased from a vendor in the game, should have that same ability.

If this ability exists on a gemstore item then Ori picks should also generate sprockets at the same percentage chance.

I love the new heart icons that show how complete, or incomplete, each heart is when looking at the area map. That was a very nice Quality of Life improvement.

I’d also like to see information added so that when one hovered the mouse over a completed heart icon on the map they could see a tool tip of what the karma vendor has for sale. It would make looking for those black beans, aqua breathers or specific armor pieces so much easier, and possibly even have players spending more karma at the vendors.

Thanks for your consideration.

Kageru.9124:

Well executed but a dreadful idea. It seems all MMO’s go this way when the developers get desperate at falling activity and starting pandering to the forum hardcore. And thus you get hardcore content (which GW2’s classes and public zones, plus previous flavor don’t suit) and class balance dominated by elite PvP concerns so it’s bland and zergy.

Here’s a hint for the hardcare (that will be ignored), most people who play GW2 don’t read the forum, they play a game to relax, gather some resources for crafting, explore a bit, earn some new skins to play dressups. They didn’t sign up for a raid game, and if they wanted one they’d be playing the dominant raid game (which is not this one). Their ego is not attached to their in-game skill so “working hard and failing often to get better” in a game is just a confusing misunderstanding of what games are for to them.

Have raid content, if you must, but off on the sidelines not as part of your prime feature which is the living world. Make dead content like Wurm (so funny seeing 3 people show up for it in Aussie prime-time) but off to the side with a “for raiding guilds on high pop servers only” signpost.

The sheer arrogance of “we’re training our players…” wow, what happened to you guys? The original GW2 design was a game about exploring, naturally wanting to jump into dynamic events that seque’d into stories. It was interesting and different. Trying to be another raiding MMO, which you will never win at, is a tragic misallocation of effort. Come up with a better solution, something that suits the original design and isn’t competing directly with all the other raid oriented MMO’s.

I think you’re wrong. The guildies that I play with on a regular basis are far from hardcore, they seldom visit the forums, but you should have heard them cheer when the Marionette they were fighting against went down. Everyone, whether they’re hardcore or not, enjoys a difficult win. People who enjoy the challenge will continue to play until they are able to rise to the occasion, and they’ll become more skilled while they do it. People who don’t enjoy the challenge will roam away and harvest chili peppers.

The relaxing content is all over the game and players definitely know where and how to find it. Putting some difficult or challenging play in the game makes the game, and many of the players, better.

Josh Foreman.8250:

StriderShinryu.6923:

I suppose what it boils down to with me is a question of why the content needs to be an elite level challenge in the first place. Would it really be all that bad if an average group of players could win?

Having said all that, if after a week the Marionette is still only being beaten 1 out of 10 times, then I would say we may have tuned it a bit too difficult. On the other hand, we don’t know how long it takes for the aggregate skill level of the player-base to grow. I don’t know how long it takes for information about traits and builds to disseminate to those who had previously never looked into them. As with all our content, we are closely watching and noting these things so that every future project can learn from it.

I hope you aren’t looking at nerfing this event already — yesterday I played the Marionette three times and succeeded on 2 of them. In the failed instance it was chain 5 that beat us — the one that people have seen the very least often. Give us a little longer, let us grow to it.

This is a spectacular fight, and we’ll get it.

Forget the axe, next update Braham will be a Hambow warrior inspiring us to take a new look at our trait lines and weapon choices!

The last ticket I sent in never received any response at all except the first, auto-generated, “We’ve received your ticket” and then a survey asking how they had done, nothing in between. A shame, since I have generally found support to be very responsive and helpful. But your responses are even worse than no response at all.

Anyway, I think I can help with a statement from a dev; Check this post.

eleshazar.6902:

I think one of my friends is near the top range of people that play this game! He is 62, and still runs dungeons/wvw with us youngins in our twenties. I actually really like the fact that people who are older than the stereotypical gaming age are in game learning how to play!

Pshhh… My oldest guild member is in her 70’s. She plays and ele and she rocks! But my guild is mostly older members.

Wait there is a simple solution that they’ve already put in the game just for this complaint.

Right click the portrait and from the drop down choose “join in some-map-name” If their map is full they can instead right click your name and choose to join you in your map. If your problem is that you want to play with your friends you can accomplish it easily. If your problem is that you want to get into an already full overflow that’s another issue entirely.

This is really a good, fun, fight. Yes, you are dependent on other people, but it serves to get people talking, calling out tactics and encouragement, interacting with other players. That’s a good thing. I can’t win unless I help other people win. kittening at them for losing doesn’t help me win, but explaining and encouraging does help me win.

I like it.

In the wurm fight last night I had someone call in map chat not to melee the eggs, to only range them. Is being in the physical proximity of the eggs the problem? Do they need condition damage like the husks? Why should we not melee the eggs?

Great guide — thank you!

I was fighting in the Wurm event last night and had someone from map chat call out that the Wurm Eggs should not be attacked with melee, but should only be ranged. Does anyone know the mechanic? Should one not attack with melee, or stay completely out of the proximity of the eggs?

Any insight appreciated.

Last night while attempting to defeat the puppet I was using siege engines, arrow carts and mortars, to kill the mobs running up the lane. However, unlike WvW the loot bags did not spawn at my feet, instead spawning where the mobs died. Since you can’t really leave siege every time you make a kill would it be possible to have the loot bags spawn at our feet instead of in the crowd?

Thanks for your consideration

BillFreist.1527:

The fact that most of these items ever existed is just blatantly a bug.

The bringer of bad news,
-Bill

I pretty sure what you really meant to say was that players are using these consumables in a way that was completely unforeseen by the developers; not that item existence was a bug. Right?

My grandkids call me Granny and they both have Guild Wars 2 accounts Our oldest guild member (that I know of anyway, we don’t usually check ID’s) is in her 70’s, and plays an ele that can compete with anyone in the game.

Hi, I’m the leader of Alchemy Incorporated and I’d love to have you think of joining AI. Take a look at our recruitment post and if you think we’re a good match give a shout. Jump in, guest over and check us out — I think you’ll be happily surprised at how much we group up and play together, and we’ll also tag along killing things and taking their stuff while you get those last few map points.

So, Loyalty spelled backward, huh? Cool!

You actually sound like a great fit for AI, even down to spelling things backward. We love wordplay and puns, and just goofing off in guild chat. We team up and do stuff — dungeons, fractals, world bosses, missions — pretty much everything except sPvP, although there are a few members that do that, too.

Check out our recruitment post and give a shout if you want an invitation.

I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed

Hi Tom,

If you play on the North American server then consider Alchemy Incorporated, as social guild on Sorrows Furnace. It’s a guild that exists just for the sake of having cool people to play with. We team up often, we do dungeons, fractals, have constant call outs for world bosses and happily play together in the open world, too. Take a look at our recruitment post and give a shout if you’d like to join in the insanity