Guild Wars 2

On the topic of guild alliances – I have a different idea for potential discussion that could help get around some the logistics and confusion. Most of what Ive seen proposed amounts to alliances being little more than shared chat channels. I think they could be alot more.

Instead of having alliances be permanent connections between guilds, I would like to see an alliance system that is based around events.

The idea, which is just that (an idea that could be good or complete trash), would work like this:

1. Create an option in the guild permissions tab (ranks) called “propose/accept alliances.” This option would allow guild officers to propose temporary alliances with other guilds for particular events (wvw sessions, guild missions, etc) – as well as accept invites from other guilds offering alliances. The ability to invite other guilds to a temporary alliance would have to first be built – for a minimal guild influence cost – and activated (like any guild booster); and would last a set amount of time (six hours sounds about right to me).

2. While the event is active, the alliance would mean all guild perks and triggers are shared between the two guilds. Most importantly, these perks could include WvW boosters (+5 to supply, etc) and guild mission activations. Additionally, all members would be able to participate in an “alliance chat” channel.

3. The primary advantages of a system like this would be to encourage guilds to work together (rather than simply serving as a shared chat channel) – and it would give large PVE guilds a way to, if they were feeling benevolent, help smaller guilds or WvW focused guilds participate in guild missions without having to ask members of either guild to un rep for the duration (likewise, it would allow large WvW to do the same and share WvW perks with PVE focused or small guilds).

Again, it’s just a thought to throw into the pile. Feel free to shovel and discard if it has no merit (late night musings and all that).

Same here.

New system could use some tweaks, but it does feel like a good change overall.

tigirius.9014:

Blaeys.3102:

After watching days of complaining and crying on the forums, I decided to start a new toon and see what I really thought.

I honestly think the changes are for the best – for the most part. They arent perfect, and i think some things could use refining, but the new system feels fluid and actually works. I think it is a step in the right direction.

It makes me think that most of the people complaining on the forums are just following the hate crowd or simply reacting to change.

My advise – actually create a lvl 1 and see for yourself. Otherwise, please note that you havent actually tried the system when spewing hate.

That said, here are the positives and negatives, imo:

Positives:

- Places early emphasis on gameplay/exploration rather than on hitting random mobs
to unlock weapon skills.

- It actually does feel more intuitive and easy to grasp – which should help players brand new to MMOs.

- The leveling pace feels significantly improved (MUCH faster) during the early levels. Basically one heart = one level.

Negatives:

- Some systems take a little too long to unlock. I think all weapon slots should be available in the first 5 levels (one per level), off hand slots should be available at level 6 and weapon swapping should be available at level 7.

- It can be a culture shock for veteran players. There should be a clear way to disable hints.

- I dont like that they had to dumb down some of the early fights/events. I think if they sped up the unlocks just a little (as per above), they could revert some of those events back without causing issues.

Elites should be level 30 for example.

I actually agree with this, but Im pretty sure I saw a dev mention that this – and a few other things – were an oversight and they were planning to revert them back to the old pacing.

I do think the new system is a step in the right direction, but it is far from perfect (again, some things unlock a little later than they should).

I think the OP should be rewarded with a special tin foil hat skin as a reward for making this thread.

After watching days of complaining and crying on the forums, I decided to start a new toon and see what I really thought.

I honestly think the changes are for the best – for the most part. They arent perfect, and i think some things could use refining, but the new system feels fluid and actually works. I think it is a step in the right direction.

It makes me think that most of the people complaining on the forums are just following the hate crowd or simply reacting to change.

My advise – actually create a lvl 1 and see for yourself. Otherwise, please note that you havent actually tried the system when spewing hate.

That said, here are the positives and negatives, imo:

Positives:

- Places early emphasis on gameplay/exploration rather than on hitting random mobs
to unlock weapon skills.

- It actually does feel more intuitive and easy to grasp – which should help players brand new to MMOs.

- The leveling pace feels significantly improved (MUCH faster) during the early levels. Basically one heart = one level.

Negatives:

- Some systems take a little too long to unlock. I think all weapon slots should be available in the first 5 levels (one per level), off hand slots should be available at level 6 and weapon swapping should be available at level 7.

- It can be a culture shock for veteran players. There should be a clear way to disable hints.

- I dont like that they had to dumb down some of the early fights/events. I think if they sped up the unlocks just a little (as per above), they could revert some of those events back without causing issues.

Other guild logistics points I’m interested in seeing addressed (with potential solutions):

Issue: Concurrent guild missions where two guilds are doing either a rush or puzzle are still problematic and cause guilds to have to potentially wait around.
Potential Solution: When the second guild triggers at the flag, extend the duration of the first guild’s timer to accomodate the guild that just arrived (basically, the first guild gets free time).

Issue: Clunky guild communication
Potential Solution(s): remove spam restrictions from guild leaders sending mails to members; create new chat channels that guilds can customize based on guild ranks (eg, an officer’s channel)

Issue: Still possible for guilds to become separated on megaserver maps
Potential Solution: Allow members to right click other member and “join guild in …” map

In Game Guild Calendar

Proposal Overview

An interactive guild event calendar with invite, sign up and notification capabilities

Goal of Proposal

To facilitate guild activities and help event (pve, pvp and wvw) leaders better plan guild events.

Proposal Functionality

Most logical would be a new panel on the guild interface where leaders (designated in the current ranking system) can create events and autosend invitations to guild members (via email). Members would then choose yes (plan to attend), no (dont plan to attend) or maybe (might attend).

Fifteen minutes prior to the scheduled events, members would then receive a pop up notification reminding them of the event they signed up for.

Associated Risks

Not sure of the technical requirements of such a system or developer time it would take to implement.

For the most part, I like the feature patch, but I do agree that the changes to leveling are a mistake.

I still remember starting the game and leveling two years ago. It was not confusing or grindy. It was a fun experience that did a good job of teaching me the basics while still offering a bit of an early challenge.

This new change feels really out of place and overdone. I know it’s probably too late, but they need to strongly consider reverting some of these changes (most notably the skill lockouts and dumbing down of low level mobs) back to the way they were before.

Also – by dumbing down the early level zones, you effectively made the world we can play in at 80, while still enjoying the game, considerably smaller. That is reminicient of MMOs like WoW (where low level zones are a joke when you reach max) and was NEVER supposed to be part of GW2.

Obscure bug -

Before the patch, I was replaying my living story missions. After the patch, I decided to “Quit this Episode” to see what would happen to the little arrow in the corner.

Instead, my game crashed and I got a “network error” message. Tried again 3 more times and the same thing happened each time.

Favorite: Twilight Assault (Aetherpath)

Least Favorite: Probably Arah. Love some of the boss fights, but learning the fastest way to run past mobs isn’t fun for me.

Welcome.

and, yes, the attitudes in game are much different than the forums, which are mostly whine-fests.

This game is what you make of it. Come in with a good attitude (which you seem to be doing), and you will have a blast for a long time to come.

Again, welcome.

DutchError.7039:

I went for a bit more of a ghostly look with my necro… (Cheated by taking the shot in Orr at night for extra effect)

10/10. A really nice and different approach to a creepy necro. I absolutely love that look for a sylvari necro.

Here’s mine.

First, if people want to spend gem store money just to get these achievements, more power to them – and thank you to them for supporting the game I play by buying things that will not, in any way impact how I play the game (win-win).

Second, even if keyfarming nerfs (which we do not know specifics about yet) do increase prices for these skins, they will STILL be available on the BLTC, meaning there will always be a way (even if it is very expensive) to get these achievements without using gems.

So, simply put, this is not pay to win at all. Its just a small part of a bigger system that we can all enjoy in some way, whether we spend money or not.

Yes, I am.

Im actually more excited than I thought I would be.

Evan Lesh.3295:

Next level necro: Although there wasn’t a blog post, we did announce the new combat at Gamescom coming in Feature Pack 2. Some details are listed here: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/September_2014_Feature_Pack#Combat_log
I figured it’s worth spreading the word since I haven’t seen it listed on any feature pack summary threads.

I actually have a question about the combat log that you may or may not be able to answer.

Regarding outgoing condition damage – will it show the actual damage the target takes or will it be based on the potential damage the caster puts out? More specifically, what will the log show if I try to apply three bleed stacks to a target with 24 stacks already? Will it register in the log as me outputting damage equal to three stacks or just show the damage from the one stack I was able to apply?

It comes down to development resources and the dev comments about not wanting to fracture the playerbase.

If incorporating something like Flame and Frost or Aetherblade Retreat is more than they can handle or want (due to the fear of fracturing) with the current system, I would opt for a compromise – which is where the idea of smaller engaging 5-player encounters released more often comes from.

Keep in mind that Scarlett’s Playhouse and the final instance in the Tower of Nightmares were scalable from 1-5.

What Im talking about would be closer to the Mai Trin fractal in terms of length and complexity – a bit of trash/story and a single challenging encounter. After a few months, we would get the equivalent of a dungeon without the wait.

As for rewards, I dont see a need to offer anything unique. This suggestion is more about wanting the experience and the challenge more than anything else.

Alternatively, they could offer a one-time achievement reward for finishing all of the 5-player instances in a season – a title or a skin that looked like a reward from the main story with a different color, possibly.

Burn it down – I love the feeling that no zone or NPC in the game is safe.

i think they are going a little too far in the dont change anything direction right now as it is. They need to be prepared to hit anything anytime in game with devastating consequences.

The best Living Story steps to date (and among the best received) involved the destruction, invasion and saving of Lion’s Arch, in my opinion. Am hoping we something similar in season 2.

And, as another poster noted, I dont mind seeing us go the opposite way either – building new structures in game to change the landscape/feel of the game as well.

rojak.1894:

^ I suspect this is where Anet is heading. Maybe in LS pt2 there will be a 5 man story ‘dungeon’.

I would love to see them treat the five person content similar to the single player content – with something new every two weeks.

One new challenging fight (with achievements) twice a month would be enough for many people – alongside the dungeons and fractals we have now.

Gates of Maguuma, the first release in episode 2, included five instances. I dont think anyone would complain if they used 4 instances to tell the main story and created a 5th catered to a harder 5 player experience.

(warning – light living story spoilers in this response)

If the concerns are fragmenting the playerbase and/or developer resources, then I have a suggestion -

Anet should take the same approach with 5 player content that they are with living story. Instead of setting aside time to develop complex dungeon paths, give us one shorter instance (comparable to one of the current living story instances) scaled to five players with each living story update (every 2 weeks) – with a fight difficulty similar to one of the bosses in Aetherpath.

In the game’s original release, the personal story narrated the fight against Zhaitan while the 5-player dungeons told us the story of Destiny’s Edge. They could do something similar with these proposed shorter 5-player instances – let us follow Rytlock into the rift with Rox or sneak into a small inquest facility to recover Taimi’s device (or you could explore other side stories not directly related to the fight with Mordremoth).

If done properly, they wouldnt take any more developer resources than the single player instances and wouldnt “fragment” the game any more than those instances might.

It would also provide content for future fractals – just turn the most popular 2-3 five-player maps from each season into a fractal to add to the rotation.

It wouldn’t offer the same ongoing rewards that dungeons do now, but it would fix the issue of no new 5-player content. Best of all, between the single player instances, the new maps and this idea, you would be covering just about any sized group with almost every 2 week update. Win-win.

The point of the video is that it is bad if F2P games cater content development to big spenders to the exclusion of average players. They are primarily talking about the facebook and mobile games we see trying to reach into everyone’s wallet (they even say those are the main culprits in the video itself).

Guild Wars 2 does not do that – in any way.

There is nothing to discuss here.

And of course, GW2 is looking for money from players and adds extras into the game to make that happen. That wasn’t the point of the video the OP linked – AT ALL – in fact, they specfically said they are fans of F2P models if they are done correctly and honestly (which I think GW2 does – again the culprits are the nasty little browser and mobile games that keep cropping up).

I think he is probably the best choice for these pieces.

He may not come across as a paid actor, but he definitely knows what he’s talking about – which is what we really want.

Awesome changes.

There are two more tabs I would eventually love to see and I would be even happier :

1. Toys (as someone mentioned above)

2. Dances (once they get around to adding new ones to the store )

JonPeters.5630:

TLDR;
We added this system as a direct result from the horizontal progression CDI. We are always reading your feedback, however, we don’t always have time to respond right away or action it quickly. We updated some trait unlocks in the past but we can do more. How can you help?
1) Give us a list of the most offensive trait unlock locations.
2) Keep giving feedback and be patient as this is a big ship and it takes time to steer it.

The unlock system works just fine, imo. You just need to actually use it to keep us engaged

I think the biggest issue is we still havent seen real end game (level 80) horizontal progression.

Veteran players unlocked all of these new traits and bought the new healing skills within a few hours of their release. Even more casual players probably had the traits they wanted within a week or two.

Releasing 6 new traits and 1 new heal skill in six months may technically be horizontal progression, but it hardly qualifies as fun or a way to continually grow our characters.

This gets into the whole end game discussion again – and keeping players engaged by giving them ways to develop their characters (horizontally – NEVER vertically) through the continual addition of new traits and utilities.

While I agree it would be easy to flood us with useless traits if you are too aggressive, many of us expected at least a few new traits or skills with the feature pack coming next week. Not seeing that makes people worry that Anet’s idea of horizontal progression is more like tiny hops once a year – which isn’t nearly enough.

That said, Im still loving the game. Thanks for the great work so far.

Great post. I agree with pretty much everything said.

I will add that I think two features would alleviate some of these issues – sliders to reduce/eliminate particle effects – and the option to turn on cast timer bars for big attacks. Those, combined with better ground indicators (as you mention) would go a long way to making the fights more interesting.

I dont think new currencies are necessarily the right way to go.

Instead, I would like to see them apply the reward track system from PvP into PVE (and possibly into WvW as well). It seems very flexible and fits well with the “play your way” mantra.

Note that I do think there should be a couple of reward tracks unique to each game mode (like the Balthazar backpiece and new tournament armor tracks in PvP).

cesmode.4257:

Blaeys.3102:

I’m still very happy with the game – as are many in my guild. There are things we would love to see done or added, but in the meantime, we are having fun.

On a related topic – am I happy with the forums? Not so much. The ridiculous infighting between the same small group of players (in almost every thread of significance) pretty much buries any legitimate feedback and makes informed discussion difficult.

Hai.

Well, until Arenanet either bans me completely from the forums(and thus the game Id imagine…), or figures out a way to keep inactive player accounts off of the forums, I am free to post my displeasure on the forums and express much concern over the future of this game.

By the way, it is only through folks that provide feedback, suggestions, harsh criticisms that anything ever gets done. Otherwise the fanboi populace will nod and agree that all is well with the game, and not much changes.

Be thankful there are people like me on the forums.

Now, when a particular someone chimes in on every post that I seem to make and spits out his usual banter of “well not everyone thinks the way you do…” for every single argument, and thus tries to convert me to fanboi-ism, thats where the infight starts.

I keep a skeptical and critical eye on the game and provide feedback from someone on the outside(currently not playing) looking in. I think this feedback is as valuable as someone that is playing and enjoying the game because my prespective is one of someone who WOULD come back if certain changes were made, and I bet my fat paycheck there are many of us in that boat.

I never said there was anything wrong with negative feedback -In fact, I think its critical to the game. What I said was the petty non-stop infighting between forum users (back and forth posts where players just try to one-up each other) gets in the way of possibly having real discussions about topics.

When the only argument (from either side) is to constantly bash one another (especially when its just two posters going back and forther), the real topic gets lost and what could be a discussion is now just another squabble.

I’m still very happy with the game – as are many in my guild. There are things we would love to see done or added, but in the meantime, we are having fun.

On a related topic – am I happy with the forums? Not so much. The ridiculous infighting between the same small group of players (in almost every thread of significance) pretty much buries any legitimate feedback and makes informed discussion difficult.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Thread explosion! Thanks for all the (rapid) responses. There seems to be a fairly consistent feeling that yes, these fights can be more engaging without becoming as difficult as the jungle wurm.

I like some of the ideas being presented, feel free to keep the discussion going. It’s also helpful to hear not only what’s working but why it’s working for you.

On the topic of using siege weapons as a role mechanic in these fights, is that something we want to see more of? I often worry that siege weapons can be just as boring as standing in the safe corner pressing the same attack. Do you feel that they can also cause some contention between players?

I think there is a good compromise on that as well – environmental weapons. Instead of requiring the use of stationary guns, give us a barrel of weapons we can move around with that have a positive impact on the fight (but arent the sole mechanic).

For example, on the shatterer, place a barrel of “grappling guns” near the boss. When it is about to fly up for its immunity phase, if enough players (depending on scale) chain it down, it doesnt fly up and takes extra damage. To compensate, cause it to encase every player in a 1500 radius in crystal prisons if it is allowed to fly up.

Just an example.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Do you guys think that there’s a middle ground between ultra hard and easy?

For example, I think we could clean up some of the issues with the Shatterer and just make it a more engaging experience. So rather than spending the entire fight hiding under his right paw he could, say, turn his head and attack that area? :] It doesn’t have to be hard, just a little more involved.

We tried to put in a few changes here and there when we added the new world boss timers. Reactions varied.

People will always react in different ways anytime you change anything. That is just human nature – and it is multiplied expontentially in the toxic environment of the modern Internet. Most times, the best course of action is to go with your instincts.

Please dont ever stop trying to make the world bosses more engaging and interesting.

I think trying to find a middle ground between the heavy organization of something like evolved worm and the faceroll easy of the current shatterer is the right way to approach it.

1. Endgame character progression system based on unlocking traits and utility skills
2. Build templates
3. New guild missions

I really wish they would merge all these expansion threads.

And for the record (again – way to many of these threads by the same people over and over), I am very much against the idea of an expansion. I want them to use their resources on updating the game gradually and giving us ongoing fun content – not on building something we wont see for a year and that will become stale a few months thereafter.

I dont care it its called a feature pack, living story update or random patch 9852XYZ, the things I care about seeing at some point in the near future are:

- guild missions
- dungeons
- new traits and utlity skills

I know dungeons are not features, but they have clearly indicated the other two are. My biggest worry, now that weve seen the meat of the pve changes, is that we wont see any new traits, utility skills or even guild missions for at least another 4 months after this update (if not longer).

I still very much enjoy the game and have faith in the developers to make a compelling and fun game, but there are some things they really need to be working on, imo – and the pace of this update makes we worry that those things are still a long way away.

I would wait and see what the new level up rewards look like for early levels before worrying too much about this.

Nothing really to discuss here. Anet has made their stance clear (they will fix events that people are deliberately failing events they meant for people to actually try and beat) and they have said they plan to fix this event.

Not sure why people are beating this conversation into the dust like this. Do you think theyre going to change their minds or something?

Bottom line – they dont have a choice but to fix these events because the players (on both sides of the discussion) aren’t giving them one. It’s either let players rage at each other/possibly block each others’ progress – or fix it, listen to a little rage on the forums for about a week and move on.

I know which I would choose.

Zoso.8279:

Blaeys.3102:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi All,

We will starting a CDI soon on…….Guilds.

It will be broken down into time boxed discussion sections such as Guild vs. Guild, Guild Activities, Managing Guilds, Guild Content etc.

I will update when I have more details on when we start. I am very much looking forward to it.

Chris

and Guild Misssions? (pretty please )

I think that falls under guild activities. And I hope alliances fall under managing guilds! So excited with the topic!!! Cant wait to get started!!!!!

Agree. I just saw the topic and got excited. Im ready to have this discussion today.

How can they improve:
- Guild missions/events
- Guild perks, influence and merits
- Guild communication tools
- Guild leadership tools
- Ways to show guild pride

How would they add/implement:
- Guild halls
- Guild alliances
- GvG as a dedicated game mode

After two years leading an awesome guild, I have a lot of interest in, and a lot to discuss about, this topic.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi All,

We will starting a CDI soon on…….Guilds.

It will be broken down into time boxed discussion sections such as Guild vs. Guild, Guild Activities, Managing Guilds, Guild Content etc.

I will update when I have more details on when we start. I am very much looking forward to it.

Chris

and Guild Misssions? (pretty please )

A paid expansion would pull developers away from creating things for us to do now.

Not a good idea and would be counter to the original model they set up. Essentially, it would create a dead game with injections of content every few years.

A steady release of smaller content packets is a better model than large one time bursts of content followed by months of dead playtime.

Agree with those saying “no” to an expansion. It isnt needed. They have a solid model for content release – hopefully they will stick to their guns on this topic.

In a perfect game world, I like the suggestions the OP has, but I think there is a better way to address the core issue.

For most people, the issue is time vs reward. For them, dungeons are no longer about enjoying the fights or teamwork – they are about getting in and getting out with as much loot as possible. Its hard to criticize them for this attitude. The dungeons we have now perpetuate and reward that kind of gameplay.

Unfortunately, it can make dungeons less enjoyable for new players or those who do want more detailed fights simply because it becomes harder to find groups.

Ive made this suggestion elsewhere, but here it is again. What we really needs is shorter, more challenging content for 5 man groups that offers a decent, repeatable (once a day probably) reward.

The perfect solution (to me, anyway) would be something similar to the living story instances we see every two weeks, only designed for a party. If we had one instance every two weeks (or even once a month) that was about the length of a current living story instance step, then dungeon runners would continually have something fresh to do. It would bring excitement back to running in 5 player groups and directly address the issue dungeon vets have (wanting something short and rewarding). As for development resources, it shouldnt be too demanding – again, it would just be one instance (alongside all of the single player instances) associated with the living story.

Again, this is just an idea.

I think, outside of a complete overhaul, the current dungeons (except for possibly Aetherpath – which is currently the most enjoyable thing in game, imo) will remain primarily as loot farms for speed runners – and offer little ongoing enjoyment in the long run. Shorter, more frequently updated, content would scratch that itch nicely.

I love Aetherpath, so no suggestions there.

Most of my suggestions for the other two paths have to do with making the fights more interesting (which is what needs to be done with pretty much every dungeon other than Aetherpath). Also, they are just my feeble suggestions – Im not a developer – so Im sure someone at Anet could come up with better mechanics:

Forward (Vevina):

+ The nightmare ambusher fight is boring and repetitive. In addition to the 6 snipers, give us a boss (master ambusher) in this room that stealths, blinks and backstabs.

+ In the bubble room, fill the room with poison that damages unless you are in a bubble with a target. At the same time, change the mobs inside the bubbles to something more challenging and diverse (they are the elite guard and should be formidable) – and make the mechanics of getting into the bubbles more clear/easy to understand.

+ Laurent at the very least needs a ranged attack – shockwave from the hammer that knocks targets down. Additionally, link Laurent and his adds so they cannot be pulled separately.

+ On the boss fight, increase the respawn time on the vet oakhearts (but have them spawn at the very start of the fight) and have them create a stacking debuff on all players that reduces every players’ direct damage (but not conditions) by 10 percent per active oakheart – making it necessary to kill the oakhearts (primarily but not exclusively using conditions).

Up (Laurent)

+ Malrona feels like the best designed fight in the instance. Only recommendation would be a better telegraph on her one-shot attack.

+ Fyonna should leash back into the room if she is pulled into the hall (its way too easy to kill her and negates the impact of the egg sacs in the room on the fight). Then add more eggs and a dungeon achievement for not breaking any eggs (and a separate achievement for breaking all eggs before the boss dies ).

+ Last boss is mind numbing because it can be either simply ranged down or negated due to reflects. People should not be able to attack the boss from the entrance tunnel. In addition to stacking bleeds, the large spikes should “impale” the person they hit and hold them in place, unable to do anything, until the spike has been destroyed by teammates (if everyone is spiked, its a guaranteed wipe). Finally, the healing vines that spawn should be converted to anti-healing vines – instead of healing the boss, they should significantly reduce the healing that players can do to themselves.

Finally, I miss the bee puzzle from F,U (having to use the sap to get past the hall of bees) and would love to see it put back into one of the other paths somewhere (the puzzle – not the F,U path – I agree with it being removed).

Just read the blog post “Improvements Galore” and had one question -

They mention substantial changes to the game systems that improve resource allocation. This is the EXACT reason they’ve given us in the past to justify the condition caps (which make running condi classes in open world very lackluster).

If they’ve truly made major improvements in how the game allocates resources, is it now time to readdress condition caps (possibly raising them substantially) to make them more viable in more game modes?

Today’s news seemed extremely lackluster. Was just trying to think of something that could make it worthy of the title “feature,” much less “galore.”

Aetherpath is fun and players still run it.

The only reasons it is run less often than the others are 1. it is harder to pug (meaning it is designed more for organized groups), and 2. it can take longer than other dungeons (meaning its run more for the experience/fun than it is for loot/grinding).

Imo, we need alot more dungeons like Aetherpath – actually offering a challenge and requiring teamwork – but they should not be in the same category as the grindable/puggable dungeons (which do still have an important place in the game). I know Im unlikely to get that wish due to resource allocation, but the idea that Aetherpath is flawed just because it isnt run as often as other dungeons is faulty logic.

Again, my solution would be very short 5-player instances released on a much more aggressive schedule (similar to the LS instances) that included fights on the same caliber as Sparky/Slick and the Clockheart. I really think that would fix the issues all sides have with the dungeon (wouldnt require as many Anet resources, dungeon runners would have new content more often and they wouldnt take forever to run).

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Blaeys.3102:

Unlike the OP, I don’t find it disappointing. The changes are nice and will improve our in game lives, especially during missions.

On the other hand, its been a really long time since the last simplistic additions to guild missions (probably longer than weve had to wait for any other game content type).

My guild still does all mission types every week, but every week we lament at how much we really want something (anything) new to do during missions, even if it is as simple as a few new bounty bosses.

I don’t think its inappropriate to say we think should be more of a priority right now. It really feels like its time for new missions to come out.

I’d say “all in due time,” but I’m sure someone would come back with “its been 2 years.” So I won’t.

Still, it boils down to the fact that Anet, for all its people, is a small company and they need to prioritize what gets worked on when based on a lot of things. Of which, our feedback is only a part of the equation. In a lot of instances, especially with larger scoped projects, its easier to get smaller things done and pushed out to keep some of the players happy, then those resources can be re-tasked to help on the larger project that is going to take more time. Which is fine. Honestly, I’d rather they have a focused group on getting the smaller scale things done, and then move on to the grander items, this way they are better quality. Rather than having everything done at once and having it all come out kitten. Then no one is happy.

Yea, I know they’ll get here eventually.

I just want them, dang it (this is where I jump up and down and hold my breath).

:)

As always, patience is a virtue. I am still having fun with friends in game while I wait (and breathe).

I doubt very seriously that story arc is anywhere near complete. I feel a little payback coming in a certain asura’s future before too long.

Sarathiel.6374:

2 years later… and we have 2 new zones and 1 new dungeon path, which took the place of an old one. New wvw map… and a bunch of features that the game needed. The new patches have been cool for the 30 mins it took to play, but beyond that this game is going nowhere. The devs have lost touch with the player base. Telling us what we want…. FoV… First person… SAB. All things it would take no effort to put into the game but they won’t do it. Honestly what are they doing over there.

You missed a few things:

Two years later, and we have (that I can think of this morning):

- A new dungeon path
- Two new open world maps
- 15 new fractals
- 4 new guild mission types (with multiple missions in each)
- new open world mini dungeons (eg, Vexa’s Lab) and dynamic events
- New PvP maps
- Edge of the Mists
- New Epic Scale World Bosses
- New Mini Games
- Repeatable Living Story Instances (The LS Journal)
- Extension of the crafting system
- Multiple new features, such as the wardrobe and megaserver

I realize there are still some things a “traditional expansion” would include (new race, professions, etc) that we dont have, but what we do have is not a small list, especially when you consider holiday events (which could be considered permanent since they repeat) and LS season 1.

Here is why I am against an expansion – I do not want them taking development resources away from improving and adding to the game bit by bit to develop a larger chunk of content that we wont see for a year and will have to pay for. To me, that makes no sense whatsover for us to want.

If they can get into a decent release pace (which I think they can based on what we saw last year), we will see an expansions worth of content eventually. It may not be as fast as we would with a game that focused on an expansion and released it all at once, but on the flip side, we wouldnt have months of dead time in the game (like another really popular game sees between its expansions – moreso this year than any other).

So I would still vote a HUGE no to an expansion. I like the pace we saw in season one/the first two years – they just needed to add the permanent content aspect to make it feel like we were getting something substantial.

I think its fine to have a couple of dungeon paths that require communication and teamwork, as long as there are others that can be easily pugged. Its just a different type of dungeon, that’s all.

As far as effort spent, we do need more like it, but I understand the reticence. Maybe they should look at the reward for completion.

I made this suggestion in another thread, but I dont care if they move away from lengthy dungeons – as long as the dont lose focus on 5 player content. Instead of full dungeons, use the same model their using for lving story – give us shorter challenging 5-man content every two weeks to complete in parties. I would be happy with that.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

tears her hair out in frustration

So…. the fact that they have

1) acknowledged that they read our feedback (again)
2) have built in the beginnings of a queuing system to adjust a huge issue being kittened about by many
and 3)consolidated guilds into a single pool as they said they would before the end of the year

is disappointing?

Seriously?!

“But we want more content”

It’s coming (as implied by Colin’s long kitten post in another thread). Just not with this patch.

Unlike the OP, I don’t find it disappointing. The changes are nice and will improve our in game lives, especially during missions.

On the other hand, its been a really long time since the last simplistic additions to guild missions (probably longer than weve had to wait for any other game content type).

My guild still does all mission types every week, but every week we lament at how much we really want something (anything) new to do during missions, even if it is as simple as a few new bounty bosses.

I don’t think its inappropriate to say we think should be more of a priority right now. It really feels like its time for new missions to come out.

Week isnt over yet. We can still hope.

In a post earlier this year, they did list guild missions as something that could be part of feature patches rather than living stories, so it would make sense to see new ones in the september patch.

Not sure where they would fit given the topic headlines weve seen though. Hopefully that doesnt mean another 4 month wait before the chance of seeing new ones again.

I realize how dangerous it is to overcommunicate or speculate in ways that cause people to make faulty assumptions. For that reason, I agree with most of the communication strategies Anet employs in its marketing and customer communication.

At the same time, you guys have already had some unfortunate messaging “leak” to the community – specifically the quotes from Gamescom about Super Adventure Box and your plans (or lack thereof) regarding dungeon development.

Those quotes speak directly and with clarity (in ways you say you dont want to in this post) about content that alot of people care about. I also think those quotes have probably been taken out of context in ways that hurt Anet’s credibility and messaging.

It is in the company’s best interest (imo) to get ahead of those messages and clarify their intent. You need to make statements about your intentions regarding SAB and 5 player dungeons – because, right now, everyone is forming negative impressions based on off hand, 20 second soundbites from a busy trade show.

Get ahead of the message – quell the panic – and clarify the company’s position regarding those features/content types (because, again, if you dont, people will make assumptions – in most cases, negative). In these kind of situations, silence is its own form of communication (and not a good form).

For me, the first four episodes of LS season 2 have been pretty fun. Weve had good storytelling and decent, challenging fights – alongside new open world content that seemed a good mix of cooperation and freeform play.

It really feels like the system they put in place could lead to something much better – if they address 3 small shortcomings – specifically to include players beyond the single player/open world model.

Below are my simplistic ideas about how they could do that -

1. Nothing new for 5-player parties to do.

This is the biggest one and why people are upset about the possibility of no new dungeons anytime soon. Reality is, we dont need new dungeons, we just need new content for 5 player groups.

My suggestion to deal with this is simple – alongside the living story instances every two weeks, craft one short instance/boss that is specifically designed for 5 person parties – it could even be a carbon copy of one of the single player scaling instances. The best example I can think of from season 1 is the boss at the top of the Tower of Nightmares.

2. No incentive to revisit the content once you’ve gotten achievements – and no way for new players to get older items/consumables.

This is a tough one, but still important. Why have content just stagnating in people’s hero tab if there is no reason to revisit (especially if they were to include 5 man focused one offs like I recommend above)?

The solution to this issue is already in the game – the PvP reward track sytem (not the same paths, just the system itself). Implement a similar system for instanced content – where players can (once a day) repeat LS fights to advance a reward track. This would be an easy way to give players access to items and consumables from past seasons as well (like Blade Shards – if they picked a LS1 reward track). Using the reward track system would allow them to throttle the rate of acquisition to avoid hurting the economy – while still giving players an incentive to repeat content if they wanted to.

3. Nothing new for guilds to do.

This is another big one that hasnt been addressed in a while. For this one, we just need new guild missions. There are tons of season 1 bosses and events that would make great bounties/challenges.

For me, those are the three elements missing from the second season of the Living Story so far. It isnt a criticism of what they’ve done so far (again, I like it alot) – it is just suggestions about how to take that content and extend it out to different types of players in game.