Guild Wars 2

It not just that… things are selling but nothing is being credited or if they do get credited its taking a while for it to be transacted.
Also if you list an item then cancel the listing you loose the item.

I’ve lost sales on quite a few items now and lost 2 items completely

This patch is just a complete mare and “firefighting” comes to mind

Well the “Fixed Server Crash” seems to of fixed some of the more noticeable stuff that the “server crash” caused

All Achievements either reset or disappeared all together, traits all reset and no points refunded, pvp reward tracks now fully reset, mail carriers locked when they were previously open, no new graphics option as mentioned in the patch notes and isn’t Magistra Ella Mackay supposed to be interactable for a LS1 recap.. cos she wont even give my toons the time of day.

Game crashes changing maps.. noticeably when going to LA

Havent even bothered to try playing any of my toons to see what skills etc are broke.

Just roll the game back to 2 mins before patch went live.. this is an unholy mess.

just logging into the forum is bugged for me.. put username and password in, enter authenticator security code and nothing, then just says some fields are invalid please fix… give up just press on forums and press the login button.. and it logs me in.

Lols – a few more than a few I think

count yourself lucky… at least your game is still pre-patch at the very least instead of it being the mess mine is now

They are located somewhere in the ether.. maybe

Yep.. what a mess once again

Yep same thing for me.. everything untrained but no hero points re-granted in order to retrain them.. again even though they are all unlocked… gee I love patch days and the inevitable bugfest that follows it

IndigoSundown.5419:

File a bug report with as much detail as you can remember. The more info they have, the better they can replicate the bug.

Ummm replicate it… you mean you haven’t tried to join a third or fourth group when your current one finishes what they were doing or the group folds etc… being locked out of grouping for these kind of reasons is plain dumb for a grouping tool.. it defeats the object of having the tool in the first place.

Add to that when you advertise your group, players join and leave then all of a sudden you can’t even re-advertise your group cos your suppressed.

The GW2 LGF tool is imo the worst I have come across in an MMO.. once again it shows a lack of quality development nowse and not considering what the community wanted from the tool. I mean to not even be able to choose specifics for your group except by way of writing “want zerk warrior” but then get a zerk necro cos you have no control of party applications… worse still when a few join at once and they vote to kick you from your own group… nah its just a poorly thought out tool that’s only real use is to advertise for mass map farming these days where anything and anyone can hot join.

To be honest don’t we already have fishing in game already… except we only cast into sand not water…..

CureForLiving.5360:

Bloodstealer.5978:

Anets light bulb way to enhance player retention.. egg timer World Boss trains, CS and Frosty champ trains + failfarming obviously weren’t keeping the numbers above the bean counter’s line so they introduced SW rather than .. you know, developing better content with a higher replay value… but no, shovel farming fits in nicely with the “we don’t think players want the swing a sword, swing a sword again and again” so we will use shovels instead.
I just tend to avoid SW all together these days and let the masses dig holes all day long.

It’s not really so much ANet designing the game that way so much as players finding paths of least resistance.

Of course it was designed that way.. why else have them in the first place.
ANET know the game was suffering a lull and would continue to do so with a content drought looming while working on HoT, so they simply introduced something that would tweak players appetites for easywin looting.
As I said it was a lightbulb moment and has likely proven more successful than actually putting out better developed content whilst taking up a lot less time and effort.
A chest farm that can reward 30-50 chests in 20mins and then repeat throughout the whole day is just a simple brainwash to keep players logged in for longer. The longer players are in the more chance a gem sale might occur. Without this path od least resistance I am confident the map would be no more populated than Queensdale is now.
In fact the only maps I see with a reasonable population and a number of map copies is basically farming maps like CS or Frosty. The only other time a map sees an influx is when it comes up on daily event rotation or the World Boss egg timer alarm goes off before quickly emptying back to normal a few minutes later.

Anets light bulb way to enhance player retention.. egg timer World Boss trains, CS and Frosty champ trains + failfarming obviously weren’t keeping the numbers above the bean counter’s line so they introduced SW rather than .. you know, developing better content with a higher replay value… but no, shovel farming fits in nicely with the “we don’t think players want the swing a sword, swing a sword again and again” so we will use shovels instead.
I just tend to avoid SW all together these days and let the masses dig holes all day long.

That hack has been in game for a whiles now, ANET prefers to just delete the posts rather than addressing the issue nothing more you can do except find another spot to play, leave WvW and let the hacker die of boredom or stay their and die repeatedly.

azizul.8469:

it’s an ecto sink….

It’s both an Ecto and Gold sink tbh.

Personally I have gained around 400 Ecto’s and about 150gold… playing the middle tier gamble, but I had to loose almost 400gold before the good times began to roll… hitting 2 jackpots in short succession .. the 10 stacks of Ecto’s and 75 trash crystals twice seemed to changed my luck a bit.
So now I have set aside a couple of hundred Ecto’s and play occasionally with them to stave off addiction….. so far its a few small wins and the odd 10 Ecto +1 crystal which are what dent your bank balance and drive the addiction home.

Menadena.7482:

“oh you want the event to fail and be belligerent about it … no problem”

/guild hey gang! those of you with tags wp to [waypoint] and turn them on

And that is exactly what began to happen with the Blix exploit.. an ANTI Failtrain began to emerge, map toxicity increased until Cursed Shore became nothing more than a FailWars2 mini game.

Same thing materialise in Frostgorge at Coil event… and so it will continue until ANET pull their heads out of their backsides and put some proper development time into creating an event structure that has properly thought through fail/succeed mechanics /rewards.
Bottom line is that failing events purposely should never allow said events to be reset so quickly and certainly should not be more rewarding than actually succeeding in any event.. its just poor game design period!
But ANET simply allow their game to be farmconsumed.

As for the foul mouth “do as I say” numpties.. just block, report and carry on doing what your doing. If ANET take action on you for trying to complete and event.. well that will surely say all you ever wish to know about the game.

Frustrating to be outbid.. yeah of course, but what is more frustrating is seeing sellers use their second, third, fourth accounts or friends/guildies to create upbids in order to get their item moving up the value bar.. and yes ebay has the same manipulated bidding system.

So I say leave it be and if players don’t have the patience to wait for an item to sell or a bid to be accepted.. don’t play the TP game.

penelopehannibal.8947:

CorrynnStarr.7942:

yea I can see it now… full bank of exo GS’s… dump them all in the forge, don’t get a pre, delete toon start again with full bank of exo GS’s… till you get one. mhmm… not exploitable at all… best fix for this is disable looting and forging for beta.

If you do get a pre-cursor you can’t keep it. The Revenant Beta slot is a copy of what was in your bank and wallet, and is separate to the rest of your characters. If you put 15 pre-cursors in your bank on your Revenant, then switched characters to a normal one, there will be no precursors when your character gets to the bank.

So don’t worry – there’s no exploitable issue.

And to the OP – it’s not cruel – the big letters above the screen of all Beta Characters clearly say progress will not be saved – and the words are there all the time.

How to completely miss that posters point…….

Holy begeeesus… I have always said GW2 plays in slow motion compared to other MMO’s I play but heckyflip.. this is insane!!
My Asuran Engi plays like Super Mario on speed I love it but heck targeting seems a little trying now……

So far my record for running/swimming the whole circumference of LA is a gnats whisker above Usain Bolt’s 100M world record… I am determined to knock that record into shape for all eternity…

BIGHARSHNESS.3510:

guildwarstwentytwelve.5693:

Just want to say I am on the verge of quitting the game, because it is so broken with dps and bugs. I understand that you want to get HoT out, but you should have made these changes a year ago. Its naive to think you can make so many large changes this close to an xpack release and it go smooth.

Right now dps is sky high, even with a full healing build trying to keep team mates up, its useless. Engi shares 1k to group big deal the entire group is getting hit for 4k per tick burning and thats just one condi.

Its time to fix things, or start losing customers, just letting you know how I feel about the game. I’m not freaking out because the game is not my life, but I would think you would want to hear from customers, so here it is.

This game is supported by casuals imo and when you break it this bad you only have a short time before people walk. Casuals dont hang around forever like hard cores, thats why they are called casuals.

Good luck I hate to see this game die off, but right now, its just not fun.

Not really defending what is happening in the game right now, but they already have your money. By quitting, they don’t lose a customer. The game is supported by everyone’s initial purchase. Yes the gem store supports it financially after that, but going off your argument, I don’t think the casual player spends money on the game every week.

That being said, it will get fixed. Its probably not something that can be fixed quickly which explains why Symbolic Avenger was just flat out disabled today.

Hmmm, nope.. the intitial purchase covers their own intial outlaying costs to repay their investors, their staff, their facilities and hopefully some gravy over the top.
As time goes on those new purchases drop off and what’s left to fund the staffing, facilities, and the continuing development and maintenance of the game only comes from one revenue stream.. the gem store and yes the casual players are predominately going to be the main source of income as many hardcore players will not have enough to do to keep them interested for long enough. That is how this game was set out from day one. It’s a good model and in defence of ANET (which is a rarity for me these days ) they do a pretty good job of keeping the gemstore churning over new things to keep casual players and hardcore players salivating a little longer each week.

Sure every game has bugs, its the nature of the beast when it comes to MMO’s especially, and yes most of these will get fixed over time.. some maybe never will.. but imo I think the OP does has a point. Many of the bugs they have already allowed to fester in game should of been looked into by now but then to push through pretty far reaching changes to the game the way they have and then have to firefight those changes almost immediately suggests they really do need to put some consideration into running a better testing environment. Otherwise the more game becomes loaded with bugs, bad mechanics and brain dead shovel farms the easier it becomes for both casuals and hardcores to walk away from the game.

Lord Kuru.3685:

Bloodstealer.5978:

doubling HP on world bosses on a whim was not the way to go about fixing content challenge.

But it is the easiest, least effort way.

If that was all that mattered to ANET then why go off and reinvent the whole condi wagon wheel in the first place.. when all they needed to do was double mob HP and triple the amount of condi dmg each one could deliver….. see we can all dream up these kind of lame solutions in a matter of seconds and not worry about how it actually pans out in live game.

Vayne.8563:

OMG… Teq represents a challenge now. Call out the national guard.

I’ve played many MMOs and they all have issues like this. Every single one I’ve played. I understand issues are inconvenient. I also think that no amount of testing is going to fix the issues, but delaying content to be tested to that level will certainly delay content.

Frankly I think people expect way too much from programs this complicated.

There’s a surprise.. someone is wrong cos Vayne has seen all, done all and been everywhere.

Sorry to burst your bubble but many MMO’s have test servers or at the very least better ways to think out and test content updates/changes.
Sure all MMO’s have bugs but the kind of things we’re seeing in GW2 lately suggest they seem to dream up solutions on the back of a cigarette packet during their coffee breaks.
To suddently come out and apologise and wish for a test server kinda speaks volumes to me, but to then jump hap hazardly into making an across the board panic fix to World boss HP without even testing out the effects to each one… even after the actual issues had been identified in the first place.. well it’s simply mind boggling and suggests more of a firefighting approach to actual created solutions.
Add to that, the content doesn’t become more challenging just because a world boss is give a guzzillion more HP, it merely make them more laborious.. I mean bosses like shatterer etc are already lame enough borefests as it is now we gotta stand there for a wee bit longer to achieve the same conclusion.
No imo the TEQ malarkey and the problem in general has been handled extremely poorly.
The core game imo already suffers from very poor replay value, which is why the put shovel farms and like in to keep players busy.. when what they should be doing is finding ways to refresh things like world bosses events to make more interesting/challenging to take on. 3HW is already an exclusive event but it had the right ideas just really bad scaling to make it more accessible.. that’s is one area they could also use some proper thought and effort into fixing.

lordkrall.7241:

1: The Teq buff is NEEDED due to the changes to condition stacking. Without the buff the buss would melt within minutes.

WRONG!

The condition stacking wasn’t really the issue, the bugged might stacks etc most definitely were…. doubling HP on world bosses on a whim was not the way to go about fixing content challenge.

Natto.5819:

Anet should ban all the bad people, so we can play games like normal.

I am more confused as to why you want to play as a child tbh… kinda creepy request in some ways, but as others have said – shouldn’t be on the agenda EVER!

I wish ANET would just close all the topics related to sexual orientations, gender, children, dressup/makeup etc etc.. its getting to be more about these things than actually about the game itself imo…. And would likely stave off a few of the flame wars and hot potato talk that some feel a game is the place to air their preferences and differences around these subjects.. see ANET this is what happens when you try to be all super inclusive.

Stochastic.1398:

Ringsound.7806:

we could choose PVP/PVE/RP server in SWTOR
so either you could persuade anet start a new PVP server even though there are already low population server, or a big No

Not what I am talking about. On Tatooine there is a free for all area where everyone not in your group is attackable. I want something similar added to a few areas.

Except very, very few players use that openworld arena in SWTOR.. there are a few of them on various maps and none of them get utilised except to run round and grab the respawn chests there and the black market terminals.

Openworld PvP is nothing but a waste of time and will likely do more harm than good to PvE.. you wanna play fight go PvP or WvW or EotM.. maybe even the Obbi Sanctum.. if not then it will likely never be an option in GW2

Vayne.8563:

yamat.5389:

What a total cluster this auto-distribution of hero points was. Now I have 5 characters that are foo-bar’d, none of which I want to play.

I cannot believe you failed to include a reset NPC. What kind of game designers are you? It’s not like the path to 80 is fast…

Nice work Anet, you pushed me away from your game.

First of all the path to 80 is pretty fast, certainly compared to most games. People level to 80 in three, four days, so yeah, it’s pretty fast.

Secondly, you’re not completely screwed, as you play through the game you unlock hero points, which will allow you to unlock more traits/skills anyway.

In the old system, most people got to 80 with hardly any traits at all. The reasons there’s no refund is because there’s no refund for unlocking stuff, which is what this is. For example, in the old system, if you bought a skill, you couldn’t unbuy it.

Go out, get a couple of levels and some hero points and you’ll have the ability to unlock more stuff.

Except players who have put a lot of time and effort into the game purposely saved those Skill Points to allow them to NOT have to keep going back to run through the levelling process every time they want to create a new toon.
This was merely a stealth nerf to kill off all those excess skill points and in some way force players to spend countless hours redoing stuff.. .. maybe that’s ANET’s answer to their games poor replay value, but I would hazard a guess the extra character slot sales will fall when players get bored silly of doing it again.
This is not the way to keep maps populated, the way to do this is to create better content that provides players with that " I really enjoyed that" feeling but sadly GW2 lacks that in abundance across most maps that don’t entertain a champ train or shovel exercise these days… there in lies the issue, they made it a mind numbing experience to level, added a dumb chest digging farm, several champ train rotations instead of thinking on how the actual game could keep players interested for longer… now taking away the Skill Point excess to force players back through the maps.. I sense many will grow bored fast and not just vets either.

No please don’t bring back the white wings.. instead make the black wings (or wings in general) dyeable

minbariguy.7504:

Bloodstealer.5978:

… I guess the question that comes to mind for me is.. if that can and does happen in RL why then would we all want that to creep into something we’re likely sitting at home playing away from reality as well, I don’t think I would look forward to logging in so much for sure.

I’m not sure I understand this comment. What exactly are you referring to when you ask whether we want “that” to creep into our game? It’s not like the NPC’s of Lion’s Arch are going to come running up to you shouting racist or homophobic expletives.

If you’re talking about other players in map chat, well, people say offensive things all the time. You block, report, and move on.

Whoooosh.. how to completely and utterly miss the point by a country mile.

No one is saying the NPC’s are going to run shouting stuff through the streets.. in fact I personally have no issues with having this NPC in game, I see it as something and nothing.. but unfortunately that is just me and not everyone thinks and acts the same as me.
Perhaps ANET, like other things they have done in game, start out with all the best intention to help please a facet of the player base but at the same time miss or overlook what the potential downsides could be.. and toxicity is one of them and can ruin one’s gaming appetite quite quickly no matter what side of the equation you sit.

As for in game chat.. of course that’s where the issues can and will always ignite.. its a very heated topic for both sides of this issueand once the stone starts to roll it turns into the unstoppable force meets unmovable object scenario and a war of words takes over .. sure we can block and report but is that really all you can come up with.. personally I think it would just be best to avoid bringing the potential flamewar into game in the first place, but hey that’s just me and ANET have already made their decision so we just all have to get on with it.

BobbyT.7192:

Peakitten.6412:

PeterFries.1057:

Iason Evan.3806:

This is great and all but can we finally get that Quaggan genocide we’ve all wanted since launch, please? Where’s Peter Fries when you need him? Take action friend!

On it.

Nooooo!

FooOoo!

Quaggans are people too! Not food!

You say that now until 500 cooking comes out, and we’re eating fried quaggans skin stew

I know in the circumstances I shouldn’t say this but.. well I just gotta let it be known.
I dislike the blue Quaggans, I much prefer the pink ones… but I can’t manage to eat more than one in a serving!

anx.7549:

ASP.8093:

Sarevok.2638:

They have that choice about their lives, let them get on with it, don’t hoist them up for everyone to judge. The only thing about this topic i can say is “The Road to hell is paved with good intentions” while people want to celebrate this NPC, it is only having the knock on effect of bringing these differences up and making them more visible when in reality, it shouldn’t be! It’s the opposite effect of what the end desire is!

But, actually in reality, being LGBT does make you “visible” and a lot of the attention you attract — especially as a trans man or woman — is negative. Even if strangers on the street don’t know your orientation or past history, lots and lots of people involved in your life do, and trans folks routinely encounter discrimination, abuse, and violence as a result.

A bit of positive visibility, even if it’s rather tokenistic, can be a nice little balm. There’s literally no downside.

Besides, total invisibility is just erasure.

Agreed. Even walking down the street with your partner can be enough to get looks and comments, and I’m not even talking about walking hand in hand (something I don’t do) Sure it depends where you live. I’ve lived in big cities around the world and never had an issue. Now I find myself in a very small rural town. I’ve never been ashamed of who I am or who I love, but it certainly gives you cause for concern just going out and doing everyday normal things wondering if you are going to be verbally abused or worse.

That’s pretty awful I totally hear that… I guess the question that comes to mind for me is.. if that can and does happen in RL why then would we all want that to creep into something we’re likely sitting at home playing away from reality as well, I don’t think I would look forward to logging in so much for sure.

anx.7549:

And, I’m sorry, for your loss, and I apologise if I misinterpreted what you said.

No apology required.. its a debate.. one full of opinion and conjecture.. and sadly much of that stems from real life emotions and experiences…. we’re all different in our own ways.. I just prefer to not see this kind of thing go beyond the realm of debate within a game environment.

Unfortunately though this is the interweebs, its faceless and easy to say anything and everything and some will take that and abuse it.. from both sides of this issue.. I am not blameless for sure, but neither am I someone trying to point fingers or hurling homophobic comments.

Hopefully this thread can keep a steady course now moderators/ Gaile have joined in.

anx.7549:

I’m not angry far from it, but before you go instructing members of the LGBT community to leave the thread because you don’t like what they are saying, maybe you need anger management classes.

Unfortunately you just weren’t able to comprehend the point that was being made.. that poster who was so say from the LGBT community was in fact the one trying to ignite the flame war by falsely accusing others who post here .. that is why I suggested leaving the thread because what Jester was saying is exactly the kind of rubbish that creates the animosity in the first place and the thread is not deserving of having that kind of treatment..
I actually find the thread a very interesting debate but even I can see if this is what can immediately happen in one small thread on a forum frequented by a mere drop of the actual playerbase, then in game it will turn much worse very fast … especially when players like Jester start harping in to ignite it… both sides of the issue have their points and both sides have as much right to speak openly , but both sides can also push the issue beyond debate in a blink of an eye… is that what you prefer?

anx.7549:

Maybe you need to take your aggressive homophobia out of the thread. We have as much right to post here as you.

And many of us genuinely don’t have any issues with ‘heterosexual’ inclusion and their preferences, but we also know and understand that not everyone shares that same level of acceptance, tolerance, acknowledgement and understanding around the globe..

Oh and god forbid young kids see a trans gendered person or a lesbian or gay character, because we all know these deviants will start on children next.

Sarcasm.

Thankfully many children are not as judgmental as you. Many children already grow up in gay/lesbian households. And before someone starts on the whole children need a man and a woman nonsense, what happens when a parent is widowed, or is left through no fault of their own raising a child? Does that make them a bad parent suddenly?

Diversity happens. Diversity is the world of Tyria. We have different species, how does this differ?

Don’t like her, don’t talk to her. And it really is that simple.

For your info .. I am left raising my 2 young children after my wife passed away a few years ago – my kids are now of the age to play this game and they are pretty unassuming in their own views also… so where is this apparent homophobia that you think I posses because I am not judging anyone or anything.. I simply prefer not to log into a game and be met with the kind of toxicity you yourself have instantly jumped into gear with.

Furthermore I have a member of my family that IS a member of the LGBT community and who also has a child albeit from a previous marriage.. so get of your high horse and engage your anger management switch before opening mouth.

Gaile Gray.6029:

However… I believe we should be able to have a conversation about this without the moderator team being required to lock the thread. Don’t you agree? Especially when, as several forum members have pointed out, this is one NPC with a few lines of dialogue who it not part of the story or of an event. You may interact with her, or not, as you choose. Just as you may join this thread, or not. But if you do…

If you feel negatively towards the presence of this NPC, this optional, easily-avoided, easily-ignored NPC, please avoid her in the game and please consider not posting in this thread unless you can do so with respectful and constructive comments.

Thanks.

Absolutely agree Gaile.. the discussion was well intended.. shame other posters felt the need to speak apparent support of the subject but then try to make out others were insulting in some way that actually was not the case.. likely to ignite the spark they apparently don’t like to see ignited.

One thing though.. small and unobtrusive to ones ideologies as this NPC is.. and yes avoidable by choice.. but then the role play and chat sniping will soon follow, and In doing so that small thing begins to grow and that little spark soon turns into a flame war that could and should of been avoided with the boundaries of a game imo.

I too having nothing against anyone’s preferences, skin colours, favourite food or what color Quaggan they want for dinner today… I’d just prefer not to see the toxicity that can and likely will emerge.. not everyone thinks, acts and tolerates equally as sad a fact as that is, but sadly it is a fact of life.

jesters.9406:

Chrono.6928:

jesters.9406:

Chrono.6928:

i don’t really get it… nothing against the lgbt community, have several friends who are, and legally i think they should have more rights, but why the need to put hot topic issues in a fantasy video game? In a game about unity and fighting dragons just seems like a good way to stirr up controversy and have more religion debates in trade chat and can see otherwise good people who just happen to have a religious belief getting banned just for having a discussion (even if in a polite/friendly manner)

why not put obama or hillary flyers up, or crosses or other religious symbols ingame too? Thought the whole point of a fantasy video game was to escape reality.

bunny trail but… why do voters even care about social issues atm when we are billions or trillions in debt atm in the usa. everything else seems kind of irrelevant in comparison to the giant problem that isn’t going away.

again (just to make it clear and i dont get banned for even posting this lol) i support the agenda, but I don’t get the need for it in a game. let the politicians and preachers fight in real life, ingame i just want to fight dragons and talk in trade chat without debates.

In my experience, anything that starts with “nothing against the lgbt community” is probably going to be against the lgbt community, just like anything that starts “nothing against black people” is probably going be racist.

I always hope to be pleasantly surprised, but I wasn’t this time, and I doubt I will be the next time either. :’)

if u actually read what i said… there isn’t anything against the community. Specifically said i have friends who are and also support their rights. I don’t like intolerance anymore than you do.

in reply to lord ahran: I didn’t say “being” gay was a political issue, i 100% agree with u that its a way of life and am completely cool with it. Just seems like the whole “debate” is a political issue and a hot button social issue at that judging by how passionate both sides get talking about it. To me might as well promote obamacare, or limited government, or christianity, or wiccans, or taxes, or other things that tend to upset people one way or another. I just don’t like people fighting over real life hot topics when I’m trying to have fun playing a game. That’s all i meant. If my friend comes out I will pat him on the back and say good for you bud But if 2 friends start fighting or arguing I will walk away since I don’t like confrontation.

ps: <3 Game of thrones. Difference between watching tv and a game with live interaction/chats where people tend to get vocal.

“I have LGBT friends” does not actually make you exempt from saying troubling things against the community, just as you did in your earlier comment.

If you think you aren’t saying something against the LGBT community, let me tell you that you might want to reconsider.

What Chronos has said in his posts was in no way a slur or an insult to the LGBT community, it’s just you trying to force your point of view on anyone who doesn’t play the same game and in doing so it only serves to exacerbate the issue… maybe that is what you actually prefer to happen.

See .. this is why ANET should of steered clear of this kind of attempt at inclusiveness.. small and of little consequence to the game per say.. but that small thing has already begun to ignite that very hot potato Chronos is referring to.
Many of us genuinely don’t have any issues with LGBT inclusion and their preferences, but we also know and understand that not everyone shares that same level of acceptance, tolerance, acknowledgement and understanding around the globe.. its cruddy yes but it’s a fact. MMO’s or games in general are not the place to fight these kind of stigmas and hot topics and for good reason…
If this is allowed to escalate within game then maybe ANET need to start placing warning on boxes, or across splash screens and raise the age bar.. because this isn’t something that young kids need to get embroiled in when playing .. a game.

So do yourself and others in the LGBT community a favour and take your aggressive intent out of the thread because your actually the one who is doing their utmost to turn it into the cat fight many of us are are saying we would prefer to avoid.

TBH all I am thinking right now is.. why have they tried to re-invent the wheel here.
Conditions dmg in PvP was fine, maybe even a little OP in many cases.

PvE has always been meehhh for condition builds because of the constant desire to make everything a zergwar and in doing so conditions became negated by the cap .. ok understand the issues but what you have now tried to do by a wing and a prayer (without any real idea how it would work out in a live environment – by your own admission) is to reinvent the whole condition wheel at once rather than playing with it one spoke at a time.
What I would of thought would of been logical was to of firstly re-visit your mob / critter tables and actually consider what they are and assign the necessary condi / direct dmg immunities and vulnerabilities (yes some do have immunities I know, but certainly not all and some defo require more logical buffing/counter buffing)..
Then when your mobs are primed, perhaps with small hp buffs and specific counter measures in their kitten nal.. then go back to the actual conditions and one by one tweek their outputs, not simply rejig their whole mechanics without first seeing what simple condition buffing would do with an improved cap mechanic.
What we now have is a complete overkill on some condi’s while others have been given more complex make ups…. (lets hope the NPE will stand up to the test this time, wouldn’t wanna over confuse them with things like confusion etc would we )
Conditions in general worked fine.. some needed some buffing, some a little downscaling but not totally reinventing the mechaincs.
With all the other changes this has made condi builds far to OP, more complex in a changing build system and untested in a live environment.. but hey the particle effect show for the 2-3 seconds an event lasts now is simply amazing.. I mean it was hard to spot what it was you were hitting prior to patch but now.. thank god for name tags.

JonPeters.5630:

Cheshire.8761:

Are you going to address how you forced characters to train into builds using their hero points without their consent? :o

Why not. Basically there were two options, both with a large number of edge cases.

1) We wipe your stuff and let you respec as you see fit. Because so much had changed this was our initial plan. Here are problems it ran into.

• People return from a long hiatus and don’t remember what they were running
• People log in and the first thing they have to do before they can play is learn both the new unlocking system and the new build system.

2) We look at what you had equipped and unlock the necessary skills and traits to re-equip you. Here were some discussions points around that:

• We might give you stuff you don’t want
• at least this won’t matter for lvl 80s if we make all the unlocks possible by just reaching lvl 80.

There is a third option which I’m sure you will bring up.
3) let players choose
Here are some reasons we did not go with that:

• Its twice the work
• Its actually more than twice the work because it would have required temporarily saving both options until you choose which is more complex technical work.
• People who were unlikely to understand or want to explore the new system were going to be potentially more confused by the choice.

At the end of the day we wanted to ship this build so we had to decide. Based on instinct we erred on the side of helping people we thought would be more overwhelmed by the opposite choice, and I would make that choice again because it has less edge cases, impacts more expert users, and leans towards over unlocking for free to benefit most of the edge cases anyway.

Hope this info helps you understand our process a bit more.

Thanks,

Jon

So when we logged in a lvl 80 for the first time after the patch we are presented with a premade build kinda based on what we had set up on the old system.. ok that’s logical although maybe not 100% accurate but in most cases fairly close.
How then were the number of Hero points each lvl 80 has at that point clcualted. I mean for example pretty much all my 11 lvl 80 had every skill/trait unlocked. This was done using the SP system and the levelling up process.. what was left over was any surplus that I had continually worked to build up and utilise where needed..
The Hero points I am now presented with.. lets say 315ish on my Necro that had an excess of 1000+ SP’s at it disposal, everything possible unlocked (including antitoxin that cost players… but that’s another argument) I now have a third of excess left and then I gotta go spend 1/2 to 2/3’s of them to fully unlock everything again for have the same flexibility in my build choices that I had already done.. possibly twice over considering previous changes a year or so ago.

So where is this free unlocking thing you speak of???

Sure I got a nice total of Spirit Shards even though I am not convinced I got as many in comparision to total of all my toons surplus SP’s+ bank.. but I can live with that even though the vendor prices haven’t altered.

The Karka hiding inside the Moa Pen up where the racing mini game was staged is bugged for me…. no wonder it was hiding in plain sight..

MiniEquine.6014:

Bloodstealer.5978:

GussJr.1643:

Did no one ready the update notes and multiple threads on how this would work?

Yes we probably did but it never said anything about having to spend a portion of those converted SP’s again to unlock things.. again!

My bad for missing the bit about having to log toons in to add the shards up though, I grant you that.

That’s because none of the converted skill points are used for traits or skills. The only thing that unlocks trait and skills are the Hero Points, which you only get by leveling and by doing Hero Challenges (formerly skill challenges). Skill points (now Spirit Shards) have absolutely nothing to do with skills.

Yes I know Spirit Shards have nowt to do with skills they are for purchasing forge items etc… but the amount you get to start are based off how many SP’s you had surplus per toon + bank.

Hero Points per toon, which were converted from old system still have to be re-spent to unlock traits/skills that were already unlocked…. yes I have more than enough to do that for sure but those Hero points will likely be needed for other things yet to enter game and by having to use like 70-150+ on each toon that’s quite a few extra challenges to be done to catch them back up.

The old system basically just saw SP’s having a dual purpose , this new system basically re-engineers the same system but imo ANET just wanted to a way of killing players surplus in order to get them to redo things so that things such as new Legendaries don’t simply become a click and have thing, whilst at the same time provide a distraction to fill the possible content gap with HoT when it finally lands.
But mehhhh who knows and right now I guess all I now care about is working out how to get the best outta of my new bad build

GussJr.1643:

Did no one ready the update notes and multiple threads on how this would work?

Yes we probably did but it never said anything about having to spend a portion of those converted SP’s again to unlock things.. again!

My bad for missing the bit about having to log toons in to add the shards up though, I grant you that.

MiniEquine.6014:

Bloodstealer.5978:

Yeah what a farce.. All my lvl 80’s had everything unlocked and all had spare SP’s on them… in fact one of them alone had in excess of 1000 SP’s and a stack in the bank.. now all my toons have to spend some of those converted spare SP’s to re spend unlocking stuff I already spent on previous…. unbelievable.

Also.. those shards……. All my lvl 80’s (11 of them) had 100-1000+ SP’s spare on them (plus a stack extra in the bank) so why do I now only have 960 shards to use.. the cost of the forge items haven’t been altered but the exchange rate of SP’s to shards is a complete rip off.. 1SP SHOULD = 1 shard if the item costs are the same.

Blood, did you log on to each of your characters yet? They said that you have to log on to each character to get the skill points on that character converted into spirit shards. Hope this helps.

Logged into 4 of them so far and still the same totals…
Just logged into 5th toon, the one with almost 1000 SP’s on him before the patch.. my shards total went up by 500ish shards.. so I guess yes you have to log all of them in, but the conversion in a rip off.. I just lost half of the extra effort I put into the toon to build skill points in one foul hit.
Edit .. just logged another toon with not so many shards and suddenly the total shot up by almost 900.. maybe its adding them retrospectively in arrears.. so maybe not all bad as I first thought. Except for having to re-spend hero points on stuff already unlocked.

Yeah what a farce.. All my lvl 80’s had everything unlocked and all had spare SP’s on them… in fact one of them alone had in excess of 1000 SP’s and a stack in the bank.. now all my toons have to spend some of those converted spare SP’s to re spend unlocking stuff I already spent on previous…. unbelievable.

Also.. those shards……. All my lvl 80’s (11 of them) had 100-1000+ SP’s spare on them (plus a stack extra in the bank) so why do I now only have 960 shards to use.. the cost of the forge items haven’t been altered but the exchange rate of SP’s to shards is a complete rip off.. 1SP SHOULD = 1 shard if the item costs are the same.

A dragon mini that spouts flames onto unsuspecting Vet players it passes on its way through Tyria!

simplesimon.2084:

All you do is right click on there name in chat and choose report. They won’t be in the game any more for a while after Anet reviews the chat. They take verbal abuse very seriously

Well sorry to disagree but I don’t think that’s entirely accurate. If it was then a certain player who I have know to be both toxic, abusive and a complete kitten to anyone and everyone if they don’t go along with his BS, pretty much daily for at least 12-18 months would of been long gone with the amount of reports made about him.. but still every day he is there doing exactly the same thing.
So nah I don’t think the reporting tools are taken all that seriously at all unless it affects there direct sales like gold sellers and even then I am not all that convinced.

Ohoni.6057:

Here’s a real-world example. I’m very fond of the game The Sims. I’ve had every version since the original, and every expansion for said games (though I have skipped some of the “stuff packs”).

Every, and I mean every expansion for all those games has been released as a standalone that people didn’t get the base game free with. After a few months released as a standalone, some of the expansions (but not all) would be bundled with the base game as a way for new players to get in, but as I just said, that’s after they’d been out as a standalone for a while.

ANet’s problem is that they’re not letting us get the expansion separately, they’re going right to the bundle phase.

People keep looking at it wrong though. They look at it as “the price of the expansion was X, but then they added in the cost of the base game and made it $50, so they should let me buy it without the base game and it would only be X again!” (X in this case typically assumed to be $40)

NO.

That is not what happened.

What happened is that they priced the expansion at $50, that’s $50 WITHOUT the base game, and then they decided to throw in the base game for free, because why not? So now the base HoT pack costs $50, plus the cost of the base game ($0), resulting in a total price of $50.

And keep in mind, this is a pre-order bonus only. If you don’t own the game at all, and go into the store to buy HoT after launch, you’ll be paying $50 AND need to buy a copy of the base game (which will likely be at around $10 by that point).

So yeah, they should allow people to buy a copy of the expansion that does not include the price of the base game, if only to shut them up, but it’ll still cost $50.

WRONG – The pre-order is just that, a pre-order. There is no original core game to purchase anymore.
The night before HoT pre-order was announced the game was still available at full price.. next day it suddenly has a 100% depreciation tagged to it and anyone who bought it the night before, the week before etc just got screwed over royally.

To me the price the value the expac at is irrelevant, although I personally don’t feel it warrants the price tag its been valued at, but that is all subjective based on what we want, think, like, dislike on a personal level… just like anything.
For me it’s the elusiveness of what is actually in the expansion, when it’s going to go live, and the total irrelevance they have placed on existing players.. that kitten storm is what has put the brakes on me whipping out my debit card for sure.

I guess time will tell if we the players will tolerate this kind of bad smell sales approach… but hey for 3 years I was satisfied with what I got for my outlay, but going forward, I personally think ….not so much.

This is a darn fine question and one that me and mine would like an answer on this.

Its already nigh impossible for us to gain guild merits without the need to cooperate with other small guilds facing the same challenge because ANET couldn’t careless about small guilds and have this preference for large scale guilds and zergwars.

Instanced content is good idea for this for sure but either its got to be properly scaleable or we need the ability to invite others into the instance to help otherwise its going to be another case of restrictive content again.

coso.9173:

because what you’re asking is impossible, they can’t give you something you already have, simple as that. And that is what you people can’t wrap around your head. all you think is “I have been playing a long time, and therefore I need compensation and special treatment. beacuse birthday freebies and stuff isn’t enough.”

That’s the point.. we don’t want to buy something we already have, we just want the expac.
In doing what they are doing they are simply smoke screening the real cost of the expac in order to gain new players and subsidising any shortfall in their new account take up projections by ripping off players who have bought the game already.
Otherwise they would of simply offered the expac as a standalone upgrade for less.

If you want to by a second account then fine, except its not gunna be 75% off any time soon for sure but of course be prepared to pay out twice otherwise your existing account will be limited still to core game only and not HoT ready..
No sorry, this is a smokescreen attempt to cover shortfalls and to claw back money from all those 75% sales they had… clever hooks but utterly low imo.

If the game has depreciated to the point of no value, why then was it still on sale for full price yesterday… very fast depreciation if you ask me.

tovadaun.6304:

quaniesan.8497:

by “base game is free”, that also means they pay the same price as vets but also have 5 character slots >=).

But… you have 5 character slots.
So?
Because theirs aren’t filled yet, that means something?
They aren’t getting an extra 5 slots. They are getting the same 5 slots you already have.
This argument makes zero sense to me. Nothing anyone has said can make it make sense. I’ve been reading the forums on this for 18Hrs or so, give or take. It still makes Zero Sense
You. Have. Five. Slots. So will they.

Well then you need to take a lesson in common sense dude.. how much dod you pay for your core game and those 5 slots.. how much you gunna pay for your shiny QoL expac with a mere drop of the content the core game has.. yes don’t forget some players have also had to buy gems to play the LS updates as well.
If like many of us you have been playing since BWE1.. your accounts will be lined with all manner of stuff, paid for upgrades etc etc.. the expac only upgrades that account to grant access to Hot it doesn’t not give you another account unless you register for a brand spanking new account and then pay another $50 to upgrade your existing account.. how do you fail to understand the rip off logic.

You fail to grasp that a new player gets everything upto the point of release for free plus $50 for the expac.. we get the same but have already paid that privilege 3 years ago and likely more since in some cases….

tovadaun.6304:

Therodin.2970:

The most reasonable complaint is that a new player gets an extremely large amount of stuff for 50$ whereas a veteran player gets only two-three maps, specializations and guild halls for the same price.

That new player is not getting any more than you already have.
I don’t understand all these posts claiming that new players are “getting more than vet players are”.
They are not getting any more than the base 5 slots, the base bank slots, etc, that you got when you got the game.
How is this “more than you get”? Don’t you already have all that stuff? You got it when you loaded your key for the core game, just like they’ll get, because now the core is HoT. Theirs just wont filled with up to 3 years of memories (or pack-ratted-ness in some cases).
I’m seriously waiting for an answer to this.
It really feels like more people are angry because there will no longer be any elite status of a vet player because the new player will have equal footing.

I don’t understand how tyou fail basic maths either.

Of course new players will be getting extra.. they get a core game pack for free with an expansion for $50+… we get to rebuy the game we already spent out on and in doing so help them recoup a few dollars from all those 75% off sales.

This is why there has been so much evasion on the subject and the expac in general.
Its a QoL update, with much of what we were sold on being patched into the core game (yes the same core game we already bought) and not even in the expac.

No sorry this is rip off marketing 101 and many of us fell for it, time will tell just how many of us who have said wont be purchasing the expac stand by that.. I for one will be one of them… trust is hard earned and easily lost.

For those who say.. we’re not re-buying the core game its free only the expansion costs $50+… I say BS
Of course we are paying for the core game again, or in fact we are simply covering the cost of all those core games that have been sold at sale price over the last 12 months in lead up to the xpac.
This is underhanded marketing at its best and a serious smack in the face to players that have supported this game through its beta testing over the last 3 years.

As for what was being marketed for the xpac over tha last few months.. hmm even that is shadey now considering we are going to be seeing a variety of those “content” extras coming into the core game before the xpac even appears on the shelves.

Simple fact is this is nothing but a rip-off, perhaps even a last throw of the dice to quell the coffers one last time and tbh as much as I have enjoyed GW1 / GW2 it has begun to look very, very stale with poor replay value, awful build/meta diversity and half hearted poor man game mechanics.. I mean even the LFG is poor in comparison to anything else I have played.

Sure they might be hiding extra stuff behind closed doors for the xpac, but I seriously doubt it, if they were I would of expected to see that to be the resoning behind price bands.. not pay another $25 and you get an extra slot, that kinda bad idea smells desperation for revenue to me.

Unfortunately this kind of marketing rip off has left a sour taste for me and I wont be purchasing the upgrade and as the core game finally becomes a dried up prune I will head off into the sunset semi happy that for what I outlayed originally got 3 years worth of funtimes at least.