I’d rather know when enemies have taken over a waypoint, frankly. Much prefer that to teleporting into a swarm of mobs.
So move the wps so that they’re safe haven areas and make them actual wps? I agree. Probably easier than redesigning DEs.
So then why even have any of the wps able to be contested? Dungeons don’t shutdown wps when you’re fighting mobs…. WvW shuts off wps for obvious reasons. For PVE you have to find it first, be allowed to use it second, then pay to use it third?
If it’s supposed to be paying for the convenience of not traveling on foot… then why am I getting the airline treatment when trying to use it? Oh I’m sorry, but your wp route is cancelled due to “inclimate weather”….
-_-
I think the problem with the zones emptying is simply that horizontal progression is usually effective when actions have real consequences… As it stands, no one being in Orr or in other zones creates minor annoyances within the map, yet has no negative consequences on the world.
What if because the centaurs and bandits aren’t dealt with, there’s a siege on Divinity’s Reach… closing off the Asura gate to it and withdrawing all human NPCs from the world? What if, by getting a weekly or monthly faction assignment (from the Pact as well as Whispers/Vigil/Priory), this bolsters defenses in the various zones they send us to which gives the world a little slack for failed events (like harder for points to be overrun, or failing an event does have quite as severe of a consequence).
To me this makes the game, and events, more dynamic while having actual progression. In it’s current form, failing events is too localized and lacks consequence.
Yeah a 100% increase is only noticeable over a massive scale of slaughtering… since mf only affects drops from enemies, not chests or other stuff. I personally don’t like it for this game (i’m more for food that increases gold drops), but people put a different value on this stat.
no offense, but the contested system is a little wonky anyway… Why are players gonna be in certain areas of Orr (or other maps) if there’s generally nothing going on and nothing to tell them stuff is happening other than noticing a point is contested on the map (or someone happens to be in the area and shouts out in map chat)?
Most people like the upper half of Orr because it has a solid rotation of things going on. You can hardly say that for the lower half (and Grenth is over to the west on it’s own island)…. and events spit out uniform karma/xp/gold rewards regardless of duration/challenge.
If, somehow, doing or not doing DEs from other zones impacted other zones…. you might get a little more movement. Horizontal progression usually is effective when actions have real consequences… not minor inconveniences
How fast did you get that 66g? Might wanna hold onto it next time (though the prices of precursors are going up again).
I think vertical progression is the easiest because it’s the easiest for players to set a goal and strive towards it. It’s also easiest in giving the player a reward for striving towards it and eventually achieving it.
Horizontal progression is a little more challenging to create that goal/reward because the value of that goal/reward is subjective. Horizontal progression is also a bit hollow in this game because actions, or lack of action, doesn’t create consequences.
::: I’m basically going to give a bunch of examples and suggestions below so you can stop reading if you’re not interested in my point… some of these would require a bit of a retooling of some mechanics, but entertain my imagination if you will:::
DEs don’t have any real significant impacts on their respective zone maps or the world…. and the nature of lesser rewards at lower zones combined with not really knowing what’s going on throughout the world without some website tracking major events (great, I have to tab out or dual monitor) and the high wp costs doesn’t necessarily inspire a lot of incentive when a player can put similar or lesser efforts elsewhere and get more out of their experience.
WvW success/failure only means I get harder/easier servers to fight next week… hardly any impact is noticed in the world for having a great server or not having a great server. Combined with free transfers every week, you basically have those folks “jumping on the bandwagon”.
Great, we killed Zhaitan in Arah SM, or that Ascalonian king which has no impact on Tyria… in WoW you bring Onyxia’s head to Stormwind/Orgimmar and get a neat little buff (I believe there was something for Shattrath too when you killed Kael’Thas). What if bringing Zhaitan’s head to any uncontested priest shrine gave interesting Orr-zone buffs?… potentially a reason for some groups to want to still do Arah SM; a half an hour or so of their time for a zone-buff that could last a few days.
Whatever factions you joined, you get a faction-specific weekly/monthly mission that is mailed to you (or just pops up in your achievement tab) and you can do them. They take you to some random parts of Tyria doing whatever. The reward for finishing the mission could be something like going to the LA faction representative and getting to choose an allocation of faction resources and where, which have some effect on the zone you put them in. So now in a zone, like Cursed Shore, points aren’t overrun so easily, there’s more patrols on the roads to help you out in certain places… maybe even the DEs alter slightly based on the assets in the map.
I mean they haven’t told/shown us all the ways they intend for us to get Ascended… That being said, it could likely be recipes that make account-bound items (like crafting a gift)
Don’t forget Frostgorge Sound (in the Norn area)…. Really unless you’re trying to get Orichalcum and Ancient Wood, Frostgorge ain’t too bad in terms of T5 nodes/mats with some T6 mat potentials as well (bloods, totems, claws, etc.)
I think I’ve only bought gems (with gold) like once in order to increase my bank slot and I’ve done fine without submitting my credit card for stuff.
If anything, this event shows why having RNG over skill for awesome stuff in a skill-based game is never a good thing. Pre-cursors should’ve been something account bound you get for demonstrating skill. Had this always been the case, or made such before LS, you probably would have significantly less complaints…. Though I do believe those who were participating and DC’ed should get something cause that DE chain was agonizing at times.
Because a lot of us were actually really dissapointed with the whole event and the problem with attending the final event with D/Cs and all, we got our finance chief to do a tally of 5 large guilds. They all came about the 10-20 gold mark AVERAGE counting in the people who got from 5 gold worth of stuff to those who obtained precurors.
What about the MEDIAN? It’s interesting to note the skewed distribution because the few people that got precursors have a large impact on the average considering most of those precursor items are 20+ times more costly than your typical exotic (unless the exotic has a highly desirable rune in it).
I’m not sure I’d call starting at lvl 1 endgame because endgame is usually a point where the majority of content is available/do-able…. Pretty sure lvl 1s can’t do anything beyond the very beginnings of the respective starter zones. If, on the other hand, we all started at level 80 and basically had to run around the world map acquiring skills, that would be endgame because all the content is available.
That being said, I don’t think this game lacks endgame as much as “lasting endgame” in a lot of folks’ minds…. I don’t know what the formula for “lasting endgame” is or even if there is one since it’s really is all a subjective experience. For me, I think it’s a combination of things such as lack of variety of armor skins (medium armor wearer bias), too much RNG/grindiness to obtain cosmetic variety, lackluster encounter mechanics in dungeons and DEs, the mechanics related to professions creating an imbalance, and combat pacing in general (I’m sure this isn’t my full list, but at least a few I can think of off the top of my head).
Gamers have a fickle attention span just like any consumer that buys something new… You want it to work and any kinks to be fixed swiftly (unless you buy the item specifically for the kinks). Otherwise, you return that product and probably try something else or move onto the next thing.
You don’t necessarily have to leave WvW to make money, but if you go into PvE you don’t have to spend that time in dungeons to make a buck (though it can be rather efficient in terms of coin/loot you can get for your time). A good explore mode dungeon group (or any group for that matter) can be a little tough to find with lots of folks being all for the fractals lately… Plenty of world map stuff to get you coin (heart quests, DEs, farming ore/wood, etc).
I think the point of the matter is why have RNG for something necessary towards progression? Why not just drop the ascended rings on the dailies and let the RNG (scaled based on difficulty) be whether or not it has the desired stats you want, whether or not it’s infused, or maybe it drops an inscription? Forge recipe so that 4 “junk” rings can be rolled for a chance at a ring with the stats you want with a small possibly at an infused ring.
Idk… I just see a cheap method of hamstringing progression as a cheap method of hamstringing progression. Oh noes, they’ll hit the cap faster? Then maybe the player base has more skill and Anet should give us a real challenge over a inflated dmg challenge.
I mean we have to factor in that Ascended hasn’t been fully implemented, so we have no idea what the other methods of getting it will be… I mean if exotics could only be obtained from RNG running dungeons, people would’ve been just as peeved.
Also the AMA said Ascended, once fully implemented, is slated to be around for at least a year. I guess we’ll see whether or not that statement holds true. We also know that nothing isn’t scaled to the Ascended level gear in terms of stats, rather agony resistance (and only in the fractals)… So wearing blues is still fine and exotics are ok as well. As far as I know, I’ve not been turned away from a fractal for lack of exotics (more a lack of resistance).
TBH, I’d rather they fix some of the issues that have been plaguing this game from the start. Much easier to create content moving forward when all the core functions are working properly.
you don’t have to buy gems to obtain the cool factor and if you did you aren’t buying better stats just a better looking item.
That may be true for you, not for all, and not for me.
Hopefully , ascension gear will stay grind fest , and everyone who wonna get it will feel same pain as those who care for “legendary” , models.How is that not true for you or everyone else? Do you lack the ability to do anything in this game? Everything you do gives you money you just lack patience not the ability to get the cool factor without buying gems.
In a “skill-based” game why are so many of the rare items RNG/farm instead of rewarding skilled players?
In 10 years of MMOs you have never seen someone have a group requirement? Come on.
There’s a difference between a requirement where a known amount of effort is needed in order to get the requirement and a requirement that’s completely RNG.
Yeah I’m in sort of a holding pattern, taking more a break and seeing how they hash this stuff out…. As much as I like fractals, I also like the ability to run regular dungeons. Enabling the ability to want to do a mix of both keeps it fresh.
I think there’s a problem with the gap mainly in that the gap is not equal… Ascended and Legendary gear should be a matter of progressing towards it through skill with maybe some need for some grinding…. but certainly not 500 of X, 300 of Y, 100 of Z which only has a certain percentage of dropping and needs you to insert A, B, and C in order to roll for it.
Request for candy cane skin rifle that shoots tinsel as a particle effect please?
Or change grenade/bomb kits on engineers so that they’re throwing/setting presents…. presents of DOOM
While I agree with your point, and have been saying this all along… that doesn’t mean folks are no longer allowed to be against the direction of the game. There’s technically nothing between the EULA and all they said that your character or his/her gear is permanent or yours as well… so they could feasibly wipe it all out your gear and assets; doesn’t mean you have to like that.
But like many things in this game… it’s great on paper and theory, but it’s execution is severely flawed.
5)Drop the ring 100% (i m at lv 19 and i die a lot bc i m 0/9 for ring and friends near me are with 3 rings -.-)
This… agony resistance, which is vital to progression, shouldn’t be RNG based. You should get the rings all the time from daily chests and let the RNG be in getting one with the desired stats. Follow that up with a mystic forge recipe being throw 4 rings into the forge to get one rerolled ring, an inscription, or a chance at a random infused ring.
I’m not so much against the gear itself, especially since the AMA made it clear that Ascended is going to be around for a while (though we’ll see about that I suppose)… What I’m against is how everything was implemented and how there are fundamental issues that are not being addressed or given the “we’re working on it” lackluster response.
EVE also does a job at keeping all maps in it’s galaxy/universe map relevant.
I’m not sure if fractals ruined anything as much as it inflamed old issues that players have been talking about since day 1 almost. Class imbalances (which become more apparent the higher you go), RNG/Grind vs. Skill in acquiring stuff, Condition vs. Direct damage, how toughness/+healing are nerfed to being trivial just so you can claim “no trinity” yet your encounters don’t equally respect the skills available, etc.
I mean it’s a free game
It’s not free.
Sorry… it’s free to continue playing.
For how long? At some point you’ll have to buy gems or die in this kittened-up economy.
Not be crude… but turn down the sucking? I’ve yet to play this game for any length of time and end up running at a deficit (and I don’t play the grind for gold route, I just play the DEs if I’m near them, dungeons, and game in general). Anet never stated that playing poorly is punishment-free. If this happens to a player consistently, then they need to realize they’re not ready for it and/or figure out what they’re doing wrong.
Until it actually becomes a “you need to insert $X to progress or continue”, then it’ll be a pay to play game.
I mean it’s a free game
It’s not free.
Sorry… it’s free to continue playing.
Still more RNG/grind for loot vs. skill…. shouldn’t be held back because RNG isn’t rolling in your favor (like really… any agony resist would do). You shouldn’t grind for the ascended stuff, except for maybe the ideal stats you want, but “grind” for the loot diversity to get cool skins and stuff working towards your legendary.
I mean it’s a free game so I’ll see where it goes. But honestly, there’s a lot of problems and I’ve just sort of put down the game for a bit.
I’ll probably never “quit”, since you can’t really quit a game with no subscription fee
Almost all games in my life I quit and they didn’t have subs. I know your line is said a lot, I just don’t buy it.
Agreed…. maybe quit isn’t the appropriate term, but there’s certainly a difference between putting down a game and never playing it again and putting down a game and coming back to it eventually. Good example, BF3 is a game I put down over 6-8 months ago and still have no interest in booting it up… whereas this weekend I brushed the dust off my N64 and played some Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
You know, you may just not like the game. There’s nothing wrong with that, and there is plenty of other mmorpgs out there for you to try out.
Always hate this… There’s nothing wrong with the game on a conceptual level, but in it’s execution in some areas. An active combat that requires strafing dodging and class synergies to defeat encounters that aren’t the traditional healing/tank/dps regiment… this is pretty sweet. A content system that isn’t gated, where the requirements are simply to be of a certain character level is wonderful… You didn’t even need to necessarily do story mode of a dungeon to participate in it. These a great selling points, and it’s the combination of these things that made me want to purchase and play….
However things like class imbalance, high dmg auto-lock ranged attacks on PvE mobs, condition dmg <<< direct damage, the fractal leveling system, acquisition of cool cosmetics through RNG/Grind vs. Skill (and challenge vs. reward in general), the not-so-dynamic nature of dynamic events, etc…. These things detract from the game experience.
Me taking a break from either the game or forums doesn’t mean these issues don’t exist unless they actually get addressed. If there’s a game that’s like GW2 and has all these issues addressed, by all means feel free to direct my attention towards them. Personally, I’d rather play the game while I still can enjoy it (even if it’s not to 100% satisfaction) and try to offer my 2cents wherever possible in the hopes that the topic gets attention and Anet addresses it (preferably with a good solution).
Why is my fun dependent on having to take a break from a game? Me forgetting about it for awhile and then picking it back up isn’t having fun because it’s a good game… it’s tricking myself until I remember why I put it down to begin with. Sure, I may trick myself into fun, in an “ignorance is bliss” fashion, but I’d rather just have a game I legitimately enjoy booting up.
So what does this say about you? You don’t enjoy the game, but you are on the forum for the game? Sounds a bit sadistic to me.
No i still play the game, just more casually than I used to. I just didn’t understand the argument…. which sorry, I misread “forum” and thought “game”. Nonetheless, my original point stands. Why does taking a break from something make the game better when nothing has changed?…. Taking a break from forums or the game doesn’t mean the game has gotten better/worse unless there was an actual change made during your break.
I took a nice break from the game and forums for the past two weeks as well… the game is pretty much the same as I left it. If anything, it’s “sameness” has caused me to play it less as there are still issues that are diminishing my ability to full enjoy the game.
Why is my fun dependent on having to take a break from a game? Me forgetting about it for awhile and then picking it back up isn’t having fun because it’s a good game… it’s tricking myself until I remember why I put it down to begin with. Sure, I may trick myself into fun, in an “ignorance is bliss” fashion, but I’d rather just have a game I legitimately enjoy booting up.
Not sure title of “best game of 2012” is really that impressive considering it’s generally big title vs. big title and the quality of stock that came out this year was incredibly lackluster… A lot of big titles that are more the same or fell flat meanwhile a lot of lowbrow indie games are getting no credit and in many ways put some of these bigger productions to shame. Pushing the envelope and being successful should be awarded… not who’s got the flashiest game and best marketing team.
A lot of the content they added introduced new issues, didn’t necessarily address old issues that players have bemoaned about since the game came out, and further inflamed old issues.
Without busting out the novel post, think about these areas and how the new content has impacted them for better or worse (obviously not a complete list, but certainly ones that get brought up quite a bit):
+ Profession Balance
+ Condition Damage and conditions in general
+ Acquiring gear through RNG/Grind vs. Skill
+ LFG system
Another problem I am seeing is people kitten their dps to go support and make fights up to 40% longer.
Well agony and enemies getting buffed doesn’t really help…. you can’t really glass cannon unless you’re confident in taking no damage. It’d be something if this dungeon also scaled the damage off combo fields (or they had weaknesses) so that even as enemies are getting buffed, more cooperative dps is greater than everyone just whomping on a target.
Yes, a step in the right direction in terms of encounter design… but really need to fix other issues before adding more. If your mechanics are rock solid, it’s easier to design encounters.
And just a side-comment… hate that condition damage doesn’t do extra damage against the ice elemental or dredge suit boss when they’re super heated…. once again, condition dmg <<< direct damage
Just fix the ones that already exist before introducing other classes.
Basically I’m playing it less because the old issues which have been brought up time and time again haven’t been addressed…. and the release of new content has not only showed these issues haven’t been addressed, but are further inflaming these issues if not creating more issues.
I’ll just use the two more recent PvE content examples since I don’t really do WvW or PvP much to make real insightful comments.
I’m not hung up as much about the Lost Shore thing because although it’s cheap that the event gave precursors (and some exploited the chest), the very nature of the precursors before Lost Shore was an issue that never got dealt with (RNG over skill/time commitment). Lost Shore only inflamed this issue.
Fractals was a neat idea. Ascended gear and inscriptions (not for +stats, but agony res and inscriptions with dungeon specific buffs) could’ve been something, and some of the encounters are a little more cooperation-based, but it is still plagued by old issues of loot being heavily low rate RNG, and now fractals have key progression loot being RNG; and then the +stats caused an uproar although those don’t bother me. Fractals at higher levels also reveal the imbalances among the various mechanics and profressions even more than explore dungeons; from boons and certain utility mechanics (which are not necessarily available to all professions), to damage dealing.
(edited by Bruno Sardine.2907)
Would conditional damage win in a fight where the enemy moves/teleports a lot, making melee players damage less?
Probably not, because direct damage doesn’t necessarily mean melee – my greatsword mesmer has a range of 1200 units.
Also there are melee condition damage specs in the game as well.
Also consider the bosses who teleport to do abilities outside the arena (like Lornarr in the fractal)… I basically wasted all that time to put up debuffs only for him to basically not take damage while he’s up there. Usually, I (as a necro) can get up 20 stacks or more of bleed + a poison duration which is some really substantial damage if you let those conditions just ride out. But no, it’s 0 damage. I’d rather just have 1k dmg a swing than 300 dmg a swing + 400 damage over 3-4 seconds that won’t actually be realized.
For me, it’s the lack of challenge and reward. I think the fractals were interesting and the agony slightly intriguing, but combinations of the implementation of the level system being so rigid, the encounter mechanics for some fractals being absurd at the higher levels (almost requiring certain group make-up), and the drops necessary to progress being so grindy to get (via crafting or low rate RNG drops)… sigh. I can’t say it’s all fractals, there’s so much more but I don’t wanna get into it because it just feels like wasted breath at this point.
Played
Lineage 2
sword of the new world
many F2P gamesI learned to hate korean mmorpg and decided i would never touch any in my life…
Then I watched GW2 advertising and informed on the prequel…..
Anet used their name in order to bait customers so now for me Anet=NCsoft=korean mmorpg=EA=Bad business ethic.At least this is my personal opinion
This seems to be a trend for these industries… EA/Activision/NCsoft/head-honcho-studio buy up these smaller studios and just spit out junk. Pretty much all the big disappointments this year have been games promising a lot and delivering it in the most cowardly/safe fashion rather than the bold leaps those studios originally took which made the games so successful. SC2 maybe the only series that is on the level with the original… even if the BS-corporate-fatheads split the kitten game into three installments. Maybe because it’s really identical to the original? FPS’s seem to do this with wild success.
Gaming background… without making a novel post of gaming experience, i’ll try to keep it short and pertain mainly to online and MMO played more than 100 hours:
- Pen and Paper (not really online, but at least co-op experience), CS (1.5, 1.6, source), Team Fortress 1&2, COD 3 and MW1-2, Battlefield 2-3, D2 and D3, WoW (stopped after defeating Sunwell pre-Wrath o’ LK), SC, GW2
I’m mostly a single player fan because a good/decent story with clean gameplay are just so replayable… this Thanksgiving marked 14th annual Thanksgiving marathon of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (it’s that good imo). Most games regardless of how many players are supposed to play have certain things that make the game ultimately enjoyable and worth playing.
So GW2…. Honestly, I was never really that gungho about the game but my friends bemoaned that I jump into it. With D3 ending up being a dud and SWOTR having all sorts of problems I knew it would have (even though the story and some of the mechanics were awesome), I figured I’d give it a shot. The manifesto looked intriguing, the classes seemed on the level, the WvW looked like it could work to really stop turtling…. all in all it looked like a D3 minus the gear system, but actually boasting real class synergy. I didn’t mind the gear cap being fairly easy to get to with the idea of skins being the goal and dungeons not requiring exorbitant lengths of time because it certainly catered to a more casual devotion but….
I have to say GW2 isn’t really a love/hate… it’s more kinda whatever waiting for the next game to come along. I didn’t set the bar really high for GW2, didn’t have any notions about what it would be or wouldn’t be (other than an MMORPG-kinda), and it really didn’t even exceed those low expectations… so whatever. I guess if we go by a strict hours played to purchase price ratio, I “got my money’s worth”…. but I have to say, video gaming in 2012, in general, has only reinforced my preconceptions of never buying a game right away and not taking fluff pieces, fluff reviews, and “interviews” as legitimate sources of info about the game.
The only real gear check is the agony resistance… the +stats have little impact in that dungeon or elsewhere. Yes, +stats make someone that much harder to kill in WvW and blah blah…. pretty sure it takes more than a handful of folks with +stats to capture keeps/garrisons/towers.
The boring aspect of the gear check is the RNG for progression, it’s falling into the same issue D3 had. My progression is literally stifled because I’m not lucky enough…. D2 was perfectly capable of allowing a player to use skill to get you through the content (naked runs through hell difficulty on normal or hardcore mode), and the rest of the time could be devoted to gearing up, leveling up, and perfecting your toon. Let the RNG for the daily reward be in the stat variations, not whether or not you actually get gear with agony resistance or inscriptions.
On top of that, the design of certain encounters is such that the scaling creates a total imbalance making some encounters insanely tougher and others just take longer.
I wouldn’t give engineers another weapon since we have plenty via our kits… but I’d like the kits to have some +stats, if not identical to the main hand weapon.
You asked for WoW’s style, enjoy!
Who asked for WoW’s style? I think most of us came over from GW1, not WoW.
Even WoW-style has controlled RNG in the form of specific loot tables. We’re not trying to get some fancy over-the-top do-dad like the Alar mount or some legendary item, we’re trying to get basic gear necessary for moving forward in a dungeon. Even WoW doesn’t stiff you that hard; if your group is fresh to the dungeon, almost 100% of the items that drop will be upgrades to somebody… and that percentage will remain the same, and fairly high, for a few weeks after beating the encounter the first time.
People probably wouldn’t be so up in arms if the rewards of this event excluded the possibility of getting a precursor. The 20 slot bag alone is a 10g reward which is fine by me. If the exotics/rares were cool Lost Shore skins that would’ve been neat as well….
Precursors, by there very nature of their existence being totally RNG, are terrible and only add fuel to this fire. Could’ve fixed the precursor debacle long ago by making them account bound and using the Pact Victory Token as something you exchange for a legendary; encouraging completion of the story among the other prereqs like doing dungeons, getting karma, getting badges, getting ungodly amounts of materials.
You should ignore it because it has such little, if any impact on your gaming experience. The grind is totally optional, not mandatory.
PVE – no effect… There’s literally no content other that factors in Ascended gear. Yes, fractals get harder and Ascended gives you a little more wiggle room with the agony res and +stats, but mainly the agony res will help more than +stats given the rate of scaling.
WvW – highly overrated… No offense, but even in the current WvW you have a handful of lvl 80s for any given server running full exotics whereas the majority is usually non-lvl 80 green/blue gear folks. Those lvl 80 exotic wearers can be a handful on a 1v1 or group basis, but it takes more than a small group of folks to take towers/garrisons/keeps. Ascended gear, which there are only 3 pieces at this point, take a bit of time to get. By the time Ascended gear becomes noticeable in WvW, I’m guessing there will be recipes to get the gear though other means (as Anet has already mentioned they’re going to do that).
Keep in mind that the dungeon is open to all players because it upscales them to 80… So some hand holding might be in order. Whether or not is was the right move to have the upscale feature is debatable (personally, I think not).
The leveling feature is definitely one of the more prohibitive measures in the entire game. A fresh player to FotM should be able to hop into a group with a player who wants to set the level at 10+. I think an xp-type system of tracking your progress would be useful so that even if players do lower fractals, they get credit towards getting to the next level (though obviously completing the max level available for that particular toon instantly ups your level progression) while players that are “far behind” essentially get power leveled through the fractals so that you don’t have to run them 50 whatever times just to be at the max level. A simpler version would just be making the max group level available equal to the highest achievement a player has progressed and upon completion everyone moves up 1 level.