Guild Wars 2

Danikat.8537:

I disagree with a lot of the changes to starter zones and levelling but this one doesn’t bother me.

You can still buy and sell using the Black Lion Trader window and if you want to collect the items there’s a city a few feet from the traders. It’s a good idea to visit your starter city early on anyway.

Yeah about that… veterans know this. But only yesterday, when I was briefly in Caledon, we had to point a new player to where the city was. Because surprise surprise, they are now only told about that at level 10, and then only when they actually do the story arc.

cesmode.4257:

Colin.. No one asked for the leveling and new player experience to be changed. I can’t remember anyone complaining that it is bad. Like a broken record here, “if it aint broke don’t fix it”. You could have invested those resources on other things, like dungeons?? Or making open world PVE / DE more enjoyable and rewarding?

I seriousl’y don’t understand your decision making here. It makes no sense and is a clear example of the disconnect that you have with the playerbase. Again, no one asked for this and no one complained about it.

Personally, I’ve always said that the new player experience and leveling experience is second to none in Guild Wars 2. It is the best part of the game, because lets face it…GW2 is not known for it’s awesome level cap experience.

You need to admit that you did a wrong here… we didnt want this. Its confusing and makes no sense.

Heck, how about making it so newbies aren’t automatically refused for dungeons or world boss events their own level in favor of 80s, because newbies just don’t have the skills / DPS. Or make it so that level 80s with full world completion aren’t able to run through a lowbie zone oneshotting all the mobs while you as a lowbie can’t even get a hit in to get event credit? Those are the things I would consider discouraging as a new player (and even on a veteran player playing a low level alt).

eyestrain.3056:

Broom.2561:

eyestrain.3056:

I find it relevant to post in this thread again now that I have been waiting for about two hours, just sitting and waiting for a chance to do the grenth priest fight to unlock a grandmaster trait. The timer between gaining and losing the temple again to restart the chain of events is too long. Especially while there are people defending the temple each time. I don’t know how to check when to come back for the events so I’m just sitting here waiting, doing nothing, alt tabbing… hard to believe i’m playing a game. gg

Please note: you get to fight the grenth priest during the defense. Which then unlocks the trait. And since defending is WAY easier than attacking (especially if the zerg keeps failing the attack), I really do not know why you are complaining.

Didn’t know about this, for one. It’s good to know there’s another option (too bad I wasted all that time) but also keep in mind if I had been doing the defense event I’d be screwing over the whole map that was hungry for the assault event. There were others besides me who had been waiting a long time, either for trait unlock or the loot farm.

There’s still a real issue with players getting in each other’s way due to conflict of interests.

The defense event is an entirely valid event that was put in there for a reason. It tells a story in the big fight against zhaitan, which is just as important to the game storyline as the assault event. The only reason ‘the rest of the map’ insists on letting it fail is because they think they get more loot that way. Which is, frankly, just about the worst reason out there.

Personally I do not care one bit for the attitude. I’ve had people in my guild who had 30 minutes a day to play. I would NEVER advise them to wait until the zerg said it was OK. The zerg hangs in the zone for hours at a time, they can wait their turn or do other loot events, like Plinx. If you need the trait, go ahead and do whichever comes up first. If you want your daily temple chest, same.

Healix.5819:

Broom.2561:

Your protip conveniently bypasses the fact that during these world boss events, someone who is in a group has a significantly higher chance of getting a champion bag than someone who is not.

100% solo, 100% success rate. Only groups that know the truth have an advantage.

I’m sorry mate, but I think you are talking nonsense about your 100% success rate. I almost never get the shaman’s champion bag in the Maw for one, and asking around tells me a lot of people don’t even know there is one. If you know some ‘truth’ that is not known to the general public, I dare say it’s likely to be an exploit of some kind.

Kuldebar.1897:

Michael Walker.8150:

Just let people put 2 lvl 20 scrolls in the forge, some stones or coins or a goat and out comes a lvl 40 scroll.

New players can’t get it and it solves the whole issue

(or 1 scroll and make it lvl 500 craft, whatever)

NO!

The /level scrolls should NEVER have been introduced into the game…it’s a rookie mistake in MMO’s. DAoC found that out over a decade ago. Don’t cut your content off at the knees and don’t starve beginner zones of their players.

Yes, less of an issue in GW2 because of downleveling but bypassing leveling means bypassing time spent IN THE GAME…the thing that supplies everything to the company and the players.

Excuse me, but do you seriously think those of us who think the changes are horrible are ever going to actually level another alt? My husband took one look at the ‘levelling experience’ and started using the experience scrolls he’d never touched until then.

eyestrain.3056:

I find it relevant to post in this thread again now that I have been waiting for about two hours, just sitting and waiting for a chance to do the grenth priest fight to unlock a grandmaster trait. The timer between gaining and losing the temple again to restart the chain of events is too long. Especially while there are people defending the temple each time. I don’t know how to check when to come back for the events so I’m just sitting here waiting, doing nothing, alt tabbing… hard to believe i’m playing a game. gg

Please note: you get to fight the grenth priest during the defense. Which then unlocks the trait. And since defending is WAY easier than attacking (especially if the zerg keeps failing the attack), I really do not know why you are complaining.

gryph.8734:

Broom.2561:

The SOE developers had done focus group testing for the CU/NGE in SWG too. And look how that ended up. Metrics do not tell the whole of the story, statistics can be used to explain EVERYTHING your way, and focus groups often only tell you what you want to hear.

I’m willing to concede that there is still room for GW2 to flame out spectacularly. I don’t think it’s happpened yet, and I don’t think it’s a fait accompli. Devs can never be 100% sure how changes will go live until they do go live. I am reserving judgement for the moment.

No, I don’t think they’ve quite reached that point yet either. But it’s a slippery slope, and I for one think the NPE was not the right way to go… it would have driven me out as a new player, and I’m pretty sure I can say the same for the rest of my guildmates.

I have betatested childrens’ games (under age 12), and what they’ve implemented now strongly reminds me of those. A cookie cutter, safe experience in stead of the wow-this-is-cool reaction we had when we started exploring this game in April beta.

Labjax.2465:

Broom.2561:

Ah, but the majority of the zerg is waiting inside the gate for Ulgoth, and not participating in the pre-events. Which would make it an equal size pie to be shared with at least 60% more contenders.

Good catch. Had not thought about that.

I think the simplest answer here would be to tweak the scaling or the tagging for when the number of players nearby goes exceedingly high. It seems like from what I’m reading (and from my own experiences) there is a sort of threshold for when things stay somewhat reasonable in terms of tagging and once the number of players goes past a certain point, it’s just a mess.

Tweaking scaling (e.g. making stuff harder to kill) could present its own set of issues (such as on bosses like Teq) so my recommendation would be to lower the requirements to get credit as the number of players near a mob goes up. This way the difficulty to tag stays roughly the same, even amidst the chaos of a full map population in one area.

Like I said, I think a solution may be found in a combination of lowering the contribution needed and adjusting player scaling, so non-80s have a fair chance too. Big bags of hitpoints do not a better encounter make. Although I do agree, the hitpoints on the totem in the Maw are ridiculous…

The SOE developers had done focus group testing for the CU/NGE in SWG too. And look how that ended up. Metrics do not tell the whole of the story, statistics can be used to explain EVERYTHING your way, and focus groups often only tell you what you want to hear.

Healix.5819:

Valandil Dragonhart.2371:

It’s become increasingly difficult because of the megaserver situation to find a map with less players so your DPS actually counts towards getting loot from the boss, and not just from the big chest at the end.

Protip: It doesn’t matter how much damage you do, it only matters when you do it. All it takes is a single hit to be eligible for loot, but not everyone will be eligible.

Your protip conveniently bypasses the fact that during these world boss events, someone who is in a group has a significantly higher chance of getting a champion bag than someone who is not.

Labjax.2465:

I wonder if champ bag drops (or just loot drops in general) are buggy for some mobs. For example, I almost never have a problem getting a champ bag from the Champion modniir guy leading up to the gate for the Ulgoth event (and that’s even only getting a few hits in). But then, I almost never get a bag from all 3 War Beasts or all 3 Champs right before the Jungle Wurm spawns in Caledon.

And then there is the issue of tagging groups of weak mobs, which I guess a lot of people are ok with? But it’s kind of a mess, imo.

Ah, but the majority of the zerg is waiting inside the gate for Ulgoth, and not participating in the pre-events. Which would make it an equal size pie to be shared with at least 60% more contenders.

Reyouka.7039:

….. Rangers can’t actually control their pets, one of the main draws of the class, until level 24. Are you freaking kittenting me?

pet controls come up at level 22, pet swapping at 24. I would have deleted my ranger long before that if I’d had to level it that way. We barely have control as is, why make it even WORSE??!

Paradox.1380:

1. They tested it in China. Works great for them.
2. Do NOT place your knowledge base/experience on others in shoddy “Everyone Knows” science.
3. ANet has more metrics and more information than you ever will about the over-all feeling of the start of the early game.
4. I am sorry you don’t like this change/idea but its already coming, adapt or move on is all I can tell ya.

1. According to what I’ve heard (from people who’ve actually talked to players from the China servers), the forums over there were in an uproar too. They don’t like it either.
2. You do the same by coming out with a statement like your first point, without actually knowing all the facts.
3. Any statistician can tell you metrics can be deceiving, and are extremely open to interpretation that fits someone’s hobby horse. As to the large focus groups…. hum. It had been shown in the past that information from large focus groups consisting of people who do not actually play the game (either because they quit before max level or never played at all), does not necessarily reflect the wishes of the people who are actually playing. Messing around with the wishes and expectations of your existing customer base carries huge risks, as Sony Online Entertainment have proven with Star Wars Galaxies (“Combat Upgrade” and “New Game Enhancements”). They too had large focus groups, they said. It is estimated those changes, that the focus groups loved, lost them 160,000 of their 200,000 subscriptions, and didn’t bring any significant new players. It’s known as the biggest failure in MMO history.
4. Move on, most likely. And at some point, the player base WILL be driven too far, and do exactly that, and they will be not be coming back, especially if the players feel they are being treated like little children. Which, in case you hadn’t noticed, most of us are not.

Is this as bad as the CU/NGE? Not yet, not. But the element of spoon-feeding players the game in little baby-sized mouthfuls is turning me, for one, off in a big way. And I’m completely baffled as to why they level-gated things I have always considered easy, and removed things I found enjoyable, in stead of just adding some solid OPTIONAL tutorials players can go through at their leisure.

From my personal first-time leveling experience, I can remember that where to go after my first starter zone was a bit puzzling. A tutorial giving a brief outline of the history and maps of Tyria would have helped there. And I was 80 before I figured out what the combo fields were and did. Definitely a tutorial there. But changes like level gating pet control on a Ranger? Seriously? If that had happened to me, I’d deleted my ranger long before she reached 22, out of sheer frustration with the uncontrollable nuisance pet.

I can confirm this. Maybe my guild is an exception, but most of us have brains. We’ve also played FAR more complicated games than this, and we actively help bringing new players up to speed in the games we hang around in.

And I can confirm, if this game had been like this when the guild started playing in Beta, we’d have skipped buying it.

None of my guildmates stopped playing because the levelling was too hard (please… we never played a game where levelling went faster or easier). Many left because it was insufficiently challenging and because of the (at launch) interminable WvW queues that kept us from fighting as a guild.

I’ve been considerably worried about this for months now. My main is level 80, berserker specced and fully berserker (ascended) geared. And I find I have trouble getting loot credit on champions during world boss events, even in a group. I tried on other 80s, all in exotics, and found some classes fare notably worse, especially if not fully DPS geared/specced.

This should simply not be. No game should ever make it so that only ONE specific spec type/gear type gets rewarded.

And worse, most of these world boss events are in sub-80 zones. I know for a fact that my 80 does TONS more damage than a non-80 in those lower level zones, even if such a non-80 is max geared for their level. If I do not get credit, how is THEIR experience in their native-level zones… THEIR zones by right, frankly.

Add to this the fact that there are quite a few people out there who will simply kick non-80s from their groups in world boss events… and yeah, this is NOT a good situation.

My conclusion is that the zergs for these events are simply too massive, and that getting in ‘enough’ dps contribution is getting way too hard. At this point, I think Anet should give kill credit to everyone who does ANY damage to champions, as a temporary measure at the very least. An ideal situation would involve equalizing the damage of downscaled 80s to be more in line with the max damage to be expected from a toon who is at the zone’s max level. Because frankly, making the bosses bigger bags of hitpoints is neither fun nor a solution, the high-DPS 80s will still contribute the most.

And some of us actually LIKED the low level experience. I for one have a big stack of lvl20 scrolls I don’t want to use.

Panamania.1450:

Gather around, my children, and I will tell you a story. Another story about Forum Posters.

There is another kind of Forum Poster that I forgot to mention. This kind of Forum Poster is the worst kind. This kind posts on the forum without checking his facts, and goes and calls other innocent Forum Posters dumb.

Again, my children, don’t be one of them.

Or you could be a little less fast to jump to conclusions? I’ve been looking and looking for an option to turn the thing off, and not finding it until just now. Why is it on by default on veteran accounts anyway? That’s just sloppy programming.

Labjax.2465:

Broom.2561:

As a former Bloodfin player, I do hope you’re being sarcastic there… I saw my guild reduced from 120 to 40 (CU) then 5 (NGE) in half a year’s time thanks to those brilliant changes.

I despised the changes, don’t get me wrong. But SWG survived for quite a while after the NGE and I think it was bleeding players even before the changes. It just obviously bled a ton of angry veterans in the process.

Anyway, what I was trying to say, as it pertains to GW2, is that they may be steadily bleeding players similar to how SWG was and this is their way to try to keep the ship from dipping significantly underwater (at the most likely planned for expense of some angry veterans).

The game was losing subscriptions, but it was not hemoraghing before the CU, just a steady decline. Player representatives and developers had come up with a list of changes everyone could agree on, which was to be the combat upgrade. And then, suddenly, in an extremely short period, a completely DIFFERENT update happened.

It has always been rumored that the prime cause for the change was the success of WoW. There you had this barely known IP, made into a (at the start) very buggy MMO, and it had over 1 million subs pretty much from the start. And LucasArts said ‘hold on a minute, our IP is Star Wars, we should be doing better’. And hence a chance that completely ignored all the veteran players wanted, in the hopes of drawing a new public. Sound familiar?

And we have SOE’s own word for the fact that the CU caused the game to bleed players at an enormous rate, they admitted this in an article a few years after the fact. They also admitted they panicked and tried another change, the NGE, which was even LESS desirable to the remaining players, causing another even bigger exodus.

Please read this blog:
http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/feature/3961/page/2

Scott Jennings, otherwise known as Lumm the Mad, legendary game developer, calls it the worst MMO failure in history. Most everyone else in the branche agrees. SWG only survived on life support, because people who had SOE’s all-games-sub had access to it. Conservative estimates have it at maximum of 40,000 players, even then. Personally, I think it was closer to 20,000.

I got back to GW2 in April 2014, after a year or so break. At that point, I had 4 80s, all with full PVE world discovery. So yeah, I dare say I’ve been there, done that, several times over. When I found out what they’d done to the trait system, I instantly hated it with a passion.

So if I wanted to experiment with what traits worked for me and what traits didn’t, I would have to redo specific events, some of which I hate with a passion, again and again? Or I would have to pay quite a lot to get them from a vendor? That’s just horrible game design. Not everyone is in-game rich, especially your casual gamer who, incidentally, would also be most likely to miss out on the required kills and events, due to time constraints and people yelling at them to fail the event so they can get more loot…

Seriously, restore the old system, it was way more fun playing that way.

Labjax.2465:

I don’t doubt they did the right thing from a monetary standpoint. I don’t doubt SWG did the right thing from a monetary standpoint when they implemented the CU and later the NGE.

From a game design standpoint, however, I feel it’s tragic for the people who put their heart and soul into innovative designs and eventually end up with something that is like the game equivalent of a blockbuster movie.

The artist in me just gets sad at the sight of it.

As a former Bloodfin player, I do hope you’re being sarcastic there… I saw my guild reduced from 120 to 40 (CU) then 5 (NGE) in half a year’s time thanks to those brilliant changes.

Yargesh.4965:

People don’t like change that is at the heart of it.

I think it is a bit more than that. A lot of us, me included, LIKE exploring stuff on our own. I well remember how guild members would go through every Asura gate they could find, just to see what was beyond it. They brought back stories about awesome world bosses, dying horribly to way higher level mobs and having fun. People actually liked ‘discovering’ the weapons for their class, and experimenting around with skills and later traits.

And all that is gone now. While I agree there was room for improvement, I feel horribly disappointed by what actually happened. I came back from a GW2 break after the trait changes, and hated the fact it tried to gate me into doing stuff on new alts that I’d long since done on my lvl 80 main, again and again. I don’t run dungeons or fractals (I don’t think they’re fun, sue me), and I don’t like farming, so I never really did have much gold. Being told ‘you can just buy them’ made me want to smash in teeth. Not being able to just try things out while levelling… well, let’s just say I consider that bad game design.

And I really consider this worse. I can only see it as dumbing down, and it strongly reminds me of the horrible invisible walls with painted-on trees you got in some older MMOs: you know there’s more out there, but you can’t get to it, or only after a long detour someone else thought fun.

Personally I’m extremely upset about the ‘suggestion’ arrow that appeared top right in my screen and that I just can’t seem to turn off, even on my 80s. With six 80s, all with full PVE map completion, I REALLY REALLY don’t want ‘help’ in finding places and events, and I’m pretty certain I would not have wanted it when I first started playing either. Having an event finder flickering nonstop in the corner of my eye is not my idea of fun. If you’re going to implement things like this, at least give people the option to turn it off already…

Rauderi.8706:

Broom.2561:

Seriously… I’m 47, I run my own business, and I DO NOT NEED SPOON FEEDING, DIAPERING OR SOFT FOODS.

Give it another 20 years~

/troutslap

I’ve been leading the same guild since 2004. It is true, there are plenty of people who never reach max level. Some are inveterate altoholics, who keep trying new stuff. Some don’t like the loooong grind (and I’m talking about games that take months to get to max level, not GW2, where it takes days). Some dislike the available PVP content, some don’t like the community, some hate the combat style. But I’ve never heard ANYONE in the guild say they thought Guild Wars 2 was too hard… if anything, people were glad about the variety it offered.

The freaking pointer top right of my screen is driving me insane. Most of my characters are 80s with full map completion. And even on my 2 lower level alts, I REALLY don’t want or need a flickering pointer in my screen that’s constantly taking my hand and trying to lead me places I do not want to go.

Seriously… I’m 47, I run my own business, and I DO NOT NEED SPOON FEEDING, DIAPERING OR SOFT FOODS.

I see a lot of the usual ‘learn to play’ nonsense… and I’m sorry guys, but it IS nonsense.
So cool, you’ve played 3000 hours, have excellent gear and tried all possible combinations of traits etc. on your character and can switch builds without even thinking about it. I dare say a lot if not most players are not like that. And for those who are not like that, the fight can get VERY frustrating indeed.

My main is a ranged DPS ranger in full berserker ascended. I’ve player her over 1400 hours and I am completely and totally familiar with her abilities. She only died twice and can probably do better.

After doing the final mission on the ranger, I did the arc on my other 80s. They are all in exotics with decent runes etc. But I don’t play them nearly as much, they are at 200 or so hours each. Their builds are probably not optimal, but they’re not horrible either. The guardian and necromancer managed to solo it, with enough deaths to destroy (not damage, destroy) half their armor. The mesmer… just ouch. Gave up and asked for help. Still working on the warrior.

I’d say my non-mains are a fair approach to what a casual player or newer 80 enters the encounter with. And for many, it will be an excercise in frustration. Which is, if you think about it, a VERY bad thing. This is a personal story arc, content all players should be able to enjoy. In stead, it’s making people unhappy with the game (just repeating what I hear in my guild). And sure, you can group…. but seriously, if you want to actually read NPC responses and see the ones that are unique to your race, that’s not exactly optimal.

I realize that there are people who really want a challenge… but I don’t think this is the way to go about it. Not all players are created equal, and fun and challenging for one can be /ragequit for another.

The best system I’ve seen to date was City of Heroes (sadly gone now), where you could actually pick a difficulty level for instanced missions, and set (multiple) specific challenges, with more loot and cash as a reward.

Broom.2561:

I’ve been experiencing trade post/gem store issues since just before the weekend. Everything worked more or less fine before.

I use the latest version of Firefox with AddBlock Plus, NoScript and FlashBlock, also the latest versions.

Making another browser the default browser is not an option.
Disabling the security features is not an option.
Operating system: Windows 7 Ultimate, 64bits
Network and ISP (xs4all.nl) are all 100% OK.

Update: for some reason the tradepost DOES work when I play using my VPN connection (same computer, same location, same software). I’ve tried several times with and without VPN, but invariably it takes 10+ minutes to load anything without the VPN, where with the VPN active it only takes 30 seconds or so.

I’d say this strongly suggests that this is not a client side software issue. Nothing is different when you use a VPN, except that a different IP route is taken to get data to and from whatever server is used.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Wall of text

Occam’s razor. If suddenly people from all over the world with all kinds of different ISPs are having the exact same issue, but ONLY with NCSoft games, then what is more likely? That all these people AND their providers are suddenly having connectivity/software/hardware/DNS issues? Or that something is going wrong somewhere at the side of whatever ISP NCSoft uses or the datacenter where their games are hosted?

And honestly, it’s not like I haven’t seen issues like this half a dozen times before with other games. If this many people are affected, it invariably turns out to be a server side issue. In one notorious case, way long ago when the US and EU were all using the same servers, someone at the City of Heroes’ end of the connection had managed to block all incoming traffic from Europe. Oh joy. We could not even mail support, because (how else) that too was blocked. In other cases the load balancing on the server side for specific IP address blocks turned out to be at fault. Or there just happened to be a DDOS going that game support declined to tell us about….

So far I’ve been able to correct this issue (and a completely unresponsive tradepost) by turning on my VPN service before activating the client. By doing so I approach the game servers from a completely different route.

Whether I am using VPN or regular access, I am also noticing lag spikes to the point of screen freezes and an increased amount of crashes. For me, this started roughly 2 days ago. This may or may not be related.

I have been running in administrator mode for a while now. Sadly, it solves nothing.

Voluptificus.9853:

I found how to solve the problem, simple and recurrent among the games : run it in administrator mode, that’s it.

Nope, sorry, that’s not it. My client is set to always run in administrator mode, but I still get locked out of toons.

Food for thought. My husband just got stuck on his mains in Blazeridge Steppes. I suggested he use his VPN in stead of the regular route. And lo and behold, the toon was able to log in.

Please note: he did not change locations, he did not change computers, he just changed the ROUTE that is used to make the connection (the routing between your regular IP address and the game server is radically different from the routing between the VPN address and the game server).

Please note the following known facts:
- not all characters on the same account get stuck, usually only some characters on some maps are affected. A strong indication client connectivity is not at fault.
- changing client IP does seem to at least temporarily resolve the issue
- the issue also tends to go away after some elapse of time, without anything changed client side
- this is not just affecting Guild Wars 2 but also other NCSoft games.

My theory is therefore that something in the routing goes wrong, and this almost certainly occurs on the server end, either at ANets/NCSoft’s ISP or somewhere between their ISP and their server architecture. Faulty resource allocation in the software may be to blame, but it might also be something as stupid as router issues (either hardware or software) in the data center in which the games are hosted.

Either way, if you’re stuck and have access to a VPN, try if playing through the VPN fixes the issue. It would be interesting if it does in all cases.

It’s been about as long as my trade post issues, started just before the weekend.

Incidentally: I just managed to log in my trapped elementalist. 24 minutes since my last failed attempt, so it may just be that the sheer passage of time freed her (which happened to other trapped toons before). It may also be due to the fact that I enabled my VPN this time, which makes drastic changes to the IP hops my connection makes (as tested in the past).

I’ve been experiencing trade post/gem store issues since just before the weekend. Everything worked more or less fine before.

I use the latest version of Firefox with AddBlock Plus, NoScript and FlashBlock, also the latest versions.

Making another browser the default browser is not an option.
Disabling the security features is not an option.
Operating system: Windows 7 Ultimate, 64bits
Network and ISP (xs4all.nl) are all 100% OK.

ISP: xs4all.nl
Location: Netherlands
Region: Europe
Game world: Sea of Sorrows
Full error code: 7:11:3:191:101
Number of characters afflicted: currently none
Map names: last happened with Southsun Cove and Gendaran Fields

update: when my elementalist (Sita Baresi) got stuck in Gendaran Fields, I spent some time reading the forums and posting this, and then tried again using my VPN (ipredator). This time the character loaded, and I promptly removed her from the zone. Not sure if it was the VPN or the passage of time that did it, will verfify as soon as it re-occurs by this time immediately switching to VPN.

Both my husband and I are currently unable to connect on our mains. We were heading to Southsun Cove for the Karka queen. On those toons and those toons only, we get code 7:11:3:191:101 and are unable to connect. We tried other toons (in LA)and those can be logged in as usual.

Our mains are stuck in limbo. Trying to connect gets us the aforementions error code, followed by a reset to desktop and an automatic (?!) restart of the game.

I’d say this definitely points to server side issues. Especially since all other internet functions work normally.

Saint.5647:

You’re doing something wrong. The story events are only 4/5. You need to do the Mordrem Champ which is right next to the flamethrower event.
That’s your 5/5 and also where you get “bottoms up.”

Your information is…. lacking. The Samples part of the event chain is bugged on pretty much all servers (although I hear rumours it works ONCE right after reset before bugging again). Which is why the devs put in an extra NPC, and Ash Legion Scout, which you can talk to so you can progress to to next event in the chain (free the workers).

Personally, I’ve participated in all available events (including the champion, thanks) on 5 characters so far, and I am still 4/5 on the achievement.

You’re not doing anything wrong, something is broken. The Sample event on Iron Marches is not happening. While you can progress in the story by talking to the Ash Scout NPC, you do not get the achievement credit needed to get 5/5 on the Mordrem Problem achievement.

And you are right, the achievement isn’t very intuitive. It would be easier if its components were listed and checked off.

I’ve tried this one on 5 different characters, most of them in DPS builds with zerker gear. One even in full ascended. And I just cannot get it to work, even doing it ‘in the right order’. Every time there’s at least one NPC dead and unrezzable, even if you run straight to the tower first.

As to ‘just do it in a group’… some very rude words come to mind. First of, this is a PERSONAL story arc, and it’s perfectly reasonable to think the achievements ought to be possible to get solo. Even on suboptimal builds. This should be about having fun, not about having the best build-and-gear available.

Then there’s the fact that grouping sometimes simply isn’t POSSIBLE. I had to work on the days everyone was doing it. And now there’s no one around anymore at my times of play. So gg… I’d love to get the achievement, but after 15+ attempts I’m about burned out on it.

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

You don’t get it because it’s in the “meta-achievement” you get for completing the episode and you obviously only get that bag once.

You get all the OTHER components on each character… so you may be right, but it’s still a bug. Either you ought to get the phantasmal residue along with the rest, or you should get all the components only once.

Also, considering I have 5 80s I’m running this on… it would be so much better if those components stacked…

confirm: not getting it on run-through with second character.

Iason Evan.3806:

We need a dungeon for the story. One that stays instead of coming back 4 months later. They are all great. Except this time it needs to be one that has a weaponsmith and Armorer with full sets that we can buy with tokens and three paths. If that can’t happen, it needs to be one that gets added to the Fractals. That’s great that the content is permanent. But you know what keeps people playing permanent content? Loot does You have to have an actual reason to repeat it. None of the instances for S2 have loot. After I have watched the story once or twice, I am never going to do this content again. It feels like there is a big disconnect between lore design, and content design. The content designers need to give the players a reason to complete the content multiple times. That reason is loot.

We most emphatically do NOT need a dungeon for our PERSONAL story. I realize that there are people who like doing dungeons, but I personally do not. I really wouldn’t want to find another one littering my personal story arcs, forcing me into a style of gameplay I do not enjoy just to clear the arc.

I do think adding new dungeons to the game would be a good thing, so those who like them have something new to do, but they need to be something separate.

As to this latest story update… I find it pretty disappointing. I strongly dislike the open world aspect. These first few days there will be an immersion breaking zerg… and in a few weeks people will have trouble getting them done because no one else is doing them.

I had issues with the instanced stuff too, mind, but that’s more about the fact that some achievement were just unobtainable without grouping. I do not LIKE grouping for my ‘personal’ story stuff.

Also: yesterday all of the Iron March stuff was broken. Today it’s Frostgorge. Fewer story-breaking bugs would be appreciated.

meh… I’ve done (and re-done) the entire story on 5 80s now. Bugged or not bugged, I’ve been unable to complete most of the Concordia and Fort Salma achievements. I understand they might be feasible in a group, but seriously, it’s a PERSONAL story arc… I’d like stuff that I can complete solo, pottering about in my own time, without having to wait endlessly to get a group and/or for that group to get ready and/or endless strategy discussions. It’s been an exercise in frustration so far.

Arantheal.7396:

No lags on my end.
Europe here, so I’m not even sitting in a convenient spot for a stable connection to the servers.
Therefore the lags can not be server-sided, else everybody would experience them.

Disconnects also can happen when a system hardly underperforms with the heavy load (say, too many objects or player on the screen), takes a couple of seconds to initially load all textures and therefore looses synchronization with the server since it does not respond properly to the network anymore.
To fix these issues minimize your graphical settings, close any application that eats gpu- or cpu-time in the background, and make sure that your bandwidth is not being eaten up by programs like your browser, steam and/or a download-manager.

If that still does not fix your problem I’d recommend a hardware-upgrade.
Again, this is not a server-side lag, else the map wouldn’t be filled to map-cap with people having a stable connection and performance on it.

If you actually go to Dry Top, you’ll see there are non-stop complaints about bad lag. Those complaining compared notes, and found we’re from all over the world, have different providers, and are specifically suffering lag in THIS zone. Many specifically mention they turned their graphics settings down.

Really, the chance of all of us suddenly having bad hardware/settings is far less likely than there being a bottleneck in the connectivity, either at the servers themselves or at ANet’s provider.

Dry top is currently unplayable. There is both chat lag and ability lag, with activation delays of a second and more. My home server is Sea of Sorrows.

I have experienced no issues on any of the other maps, even while doing the world boss train, which has significantly more people in it than Dry Top.

Vayne.8563:

Frega.9247:

Then I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong if you’re just playing the game and having gold.

I play WvW a few hours a day and get nothing. Repair fees only, and if I’m lucky I break even.

Superior runes 6/6 is usually the kicker. Builds are reliant on those expensive 6/6 rune bonus.

If you’re only playing one aspect of the game, say WvW, it might be different. I mean if you play all day and do nothing but SPvP, you barely make any money at all.

I’m talking about PVeing, when I talk about playing the game, as I assume most people are. WvW actually represents only a small portion of the game. Meaning you have four maps, and when you compare the area of those maps to the area of the rest of the game, it’s pretty small.

So you’re playing a small fraction of the game, where as I’m playing the entire game (including WvW sometimes).

I’m pretty sure you’re mistaken about your perception about who participates in what playstyle. I’ve been leading a guild since 2004, and from what have seen over the years, there is a pretty significant portion of our players who are ONLY interested in PVP, be it world PVP or wargame PVP (by whatever name). I’ve also seen people who only run dungeons or who only ever do open world PVE, and there are players who – given a choice – will only craft or only play the market or only participate in socializing (read: stand around chatting for hours on end).

I think the problem is more that for an equal amount of time spent in game, the rewards (perceived and factual) per play style are very different.

I’ve been playing MMO since 2003, and I for one was extremely happy when GW2 stated that there would not be a gear treadmills, that the only thing you’d be working towards would be better LOOKS. I’m so tired of the endless gear and level grinds that every game has nowadays.

What I want? A real virtual world, I suppose. A place where crafting is complex enough to hold my interest and actually matters to the economy. A pace where drops are logical (e.g. animals will drop leather/meat/bone/feathers etc, in stead of pieces of armor). A place where there’s more than just endless mob killing, but that also has pure crafters, pure traders, social professions, anything you’d find in a real society. I want player cities, player housing, guild halls and world PVP that doesn’t make people wait in a queue for hours, EVEN IF THAT MEANS MY SIDE IS OUTNUMBERED 10 to 1.

So yeah… I’ve completely lost interest in the game. I still think they got a lot of things right, but when you add everything up – especially the recent addition of ascended gear and the changed dailies – it’s just not a game I can have fun playing anymore.

I know you can’t have it all, but I sure would have liked this game to take a different path from all the others. Some may applaud it as giving (part of) the public what they want. But please keep in mind that there are people who look for other things in MMO.

If they raise the level cap, I’ll find myself another game to play. I’m not a fan of levels to begin with, and I refuse to enter another endless level up/gear up treadmill.

ahuba.6430:

Are you serious? Jesus people just pick on everything to complain about, what’s wrong with the dodging part? it think its a great addition to get people to start properly learning how to use it. People cheap it by just letting mobs attack? Well worst to them, its their problem, it takes like 10 minutes of normal play to get it done. Crafting part? thats unnecessary yes, but it takes like 10 seconds… The worst really is the underwater daily, rest is fine and a great addition.

Dodging correctly means you have to react rapidly to a specific in game situation. In other words, it is a form of twitch gaming. I’m physically unable to do twitch gaming. It causes me pain. Which means I play classes where you generally do not have a need to dodge, like my ranged ranger or my retalliation guardian. (Seriously, if a longbow ranger HAS to dodge in order to survive, they’re doing something wrong.)

So for me, dodging is a profoundly unnatural and completely undesirable addition for the dailies. And I’m getting VERY VERY tired of the L2P comments.

neochaos.2410:

Yeah I think going over to a NA server would be the better option for me, my only concern is the time difference. For what would be peak time for me could be dead for that server and have no way of transfering back and forth. And yes I’m on Aurora Glade at the moment this is the second time we’ve moved for the same reason. =/

I’m Dutch. When I first started MMO gaming, it was in a game without barriers between EU and US users, so I got to playing on a predominantly US server and joined an international guild. I’ve been playing on US servers ever since. I can assure you the time difference isn’t usually that much of a hassle, especially if you pick a server with a lot of people from Asia/Australia/NZ.

And yeah, the language thing…. I tried EU servers a few times, but they drive me nuts. At some times, there’s over a dozen languages in general chat. It makes it really hard to communicate, especially when people stubbornly refuse to talk English while playing, even when the server is designated as English language.

Actually, some of the guild names I’ve seen for guilds using the [Fate] tag didn’t even have ‘fate’ in it in any way, shape or form. I see that with a lot of the 4 letter tags. People pick something that looks cool and that is not necessarily related to the guild name.

As for your suggestion of using FTD… apart from the fact I don’t even know if it is possible to change the name of an existing guild, for us, “Fate” was and is a FAR more natural choice for us than “FTD”. Partly because it’s harder to associate ‘ftd’ with ‘fated’ than it is for ‘fate’, partly because in our 10 year history, we’ve actually created sister guilds in the same game (and on the same server) with other Fate related names.

The rest of what you are saying makes no sense to me. Quickly identify? Rather the reverse, since you have to click the character to find out for sure. Especially when I keep seeing things like a guild which has no ‘one’ in the name using the tag ‘ONE’, a tag I associate with the guild ‘Section One’. Or the guild using the tag MERC, which has zero relation to the guild that’s actually called Merc.

And how is it NOT the developers fault that they chose a guild tag format that only allows 4 characters? They must have known that this would create a situation where duplication was unavoidable.

And length restrictions this strict are only necessary if you insist on placing guild tags next to the player name, in stead of under it. Programming wise this should not even be all that hard. (And to avoid the inevitable ‘how would you know’… I’m a software engineer).

Pretty much every other MMO I’ve played – and I’ve played a lot – has no issues with tags that are longer than 4 characters. Most allow multiple words too, within reasonable limits. This allows for much more uniqueness in guild tags.