Guild Wars 2

BobbyStein.2315:

Thalador.4218:

BobbyStein.2315:

The best is yet to come.

So more massacres, mayhem, and destruction in your words. Why is that since the start of this Living World (although I may risk saying that there were signs of this in the vanilla game as well) the only way you guys seem to be able to drive the story forward is through mass killings and calamities (that often draw parallels with real life modern attacks on innocents)?

Remember this picture attached to the Story Journal reveal page? I can’t decide whether it’s hilarious, ridiculous, or outrageously imbecile and depressing that it’s a spot-on summary of your entire storytelling to date…

What sort of stories would you like to see?

I’m pretty ok with the destruction and massacre stories we’ve gotten. However, it’s always disappointed me that very rarely to we dovetail those disasters closely with the “let’s kill the elder dragons” story which should ALWAYS be at the heart of GW2 stories.

For example, in Flame and Frost we discovered a Molten Alliance factory. My understanding is that it was destroyed and that tech was then used to drill for lay lines. But I’ve always felt there was such an opportunity lost there (within the bounds of Flame and Frost) to give a larger message of hope on the Elder Dragon front.

Instead of being destroyed (because face it, destroying it was a narrative choice, and any other choice could have been just as viable), the factory could have been taken over by the pact or at the very least the vigil in order to study the new weapons and use the factory’s resources to help resupply the pact to fight the dragons.

Heck, converting the factory and clearing out Molten Alliance remnants could even have been it’s own one-path dungeon. That’s not only interesting, but it directly creates a sense of progress and hope in the fight against the elder dragons.

Another example, In The Nightmare Ends release, we destroyed the tower of nightmares. Again, it’s a narrative choice, the tower could have stayed in place, and the Sylvari could have adopted healing it and Kessex Hills as a pet project in order to develop techniques for healing Orr and other areas victim of dragon corruption (such as the Brand).

Again, that’s something that directly makes it feel like we’re making progress on the fight against the elder dragons, and again, that could even be a single-path dungeon all about the Wardens/Sylvari clearing out Toxic Alliance remnants and trying out cures.

These are stories I want to see because they make me as a player feel like what I’m doing out there in the world is still important. It makes me feel like as a commander of the Pact these are ways I’m still supporting the fight against the elder dragons even if I’m not actively leading troops or punching a dragon in the face at this very moment.

tl;dr in CDI format

Proposal Overview
I propose that in the future the writing and development staff attempt to more closely link living world stories with the ultimate goal of defeating the elder dragons.

Goal of Proposal
The goal is threefold:
*It alleviates community concerns that it feels like the Pact is not doing anything.
*It helps to maintain the focus of the world and story on the elder dragons even if an individual event doesn’t immediately appear to connect to it.
*It creates a sense of progress and development in the fight against the elder dragons.

Proposal Functionality
Instead of destroying areas like the Molten Factory or the Tower of nightmares, in the future the writing staff and development team should consider keeping these assets in the game and using them to connect to the elder dragons or the pact.

For example:
Make a permanent, single-path dungeon or story instance about clearing the Molten Factory and converting it into a pact weapon’s factory.

Make a permanent, single-path dungeon or story instance about clearing the Tower of Nightmares and how the Sylvari are using it to learn about healing the land in order to help areas like Orr that have been scarred by corruption.

Associated Risks
It takes time and resources to develop dungeon content.
Many people would expect new rewards from dungeon content.
These new instances may not directly advance the story in the current living story in which they appear and could be seen as a distraction during that release.

There’s a decent amount of buzz still circulating about what people want to see in season two of the living story. There’s a lot of talk about fighting Mordremoth, new races, and new professions –all of which are very interesting yet still over-talked about.

Honestly, my expectations for season two are very macroscopic. All of the aforementioned things would be interesting and great, but what I want to see are new permanent, constructive additions to the world. Interpret that as you will: new maps, new buildings, new cities, ect. And I stress this a lot because if there was one largely overlooked aspect of the living story that that is this: the largest cosmetic changes to the maps since Flame and Frost have been matters of destruction.

When the toxic tower fell, we were left with debris and destruction. When the marionette was destroyed, we were left with debris and destruction. When the battle of Lion’s Arch was over, we were left with debris and destruction. I’m hoping you notice an emerging pattern here.

The world we’re left with is a lot darker and in the case of at least Lion’s Arch feels more empty than ever. Praise where praise is due, the developers and writers have done a good job at creating world-changing events. I absolutely want this to continue, and it necessarily must for the sake of meaningful conflict in the continuing plot of the Living Story.

However, for every decimated Lion’s Arch, we need something else of meaningful value created, another place of importance that we can revisit again and again as evidence of hope for the future of Tyria. If all we ever see is destruction, all we know is a world headed to its doom.

The Queen’s Pavilion stands out in my mind as one permanent act of construction we saw in this season. However, how often do you visit the pavilion? What is there to do? Chances are that unless you have a pass to use the crafting stations there, you will never have a reason to be there. This is not a meaningful change, this was merely covering up the great collapse with another –albeit fancier- hole.

I don’t need or even want a new map to be released with each Living Story arc. Some examples of things I might want to see as permanent, explorable developments could be things like keeping the Molten facility and converting it into a factory for building weapons for the pact, or keeping the tower of nightmares and converting it into a sylvari pet-project for revitalizing the land after being exposed to corruption (as a means of helping to aide in the process of revitalizing Orr), or actually having a permanent activity housed in the queen’s pavilion open to everyone. Or, even having the Bazaar of the four winds as a moving but permanent fixture would be nice.

Heck, some of these could even be reworked into new explorable dungeon paths. The process of converting the molten facility or repurposing the tower of nightmares in and of themselves could be a single-path explorable dungeon comparable to TA’s aetherblade path.

Regardless, that is my hope for next season. I want to see new permanent developments that showcase positive changes in Tyria. Either way, I’m looking forward to what comes next.

Maybe this is too off-topic, but I’d like the ability to create stat combos in the game.

For example, it might be linked to crafting and would likely be more expensive, but I’d like to be able to say, I want this major stat and these minor stats..

So, If I play a Guardian that is very condition based with a decent amount of support, I could say I want

Condition Damage/Healing Power/Boon Duration

and just build it in the game.

That said, I understand this may not be possible. In which case, I would still like to see that particular stat combo.

Condition Damage/Healing Power/Boon Duration
I’d probably call it something like “Wizard’s” or “…of the Wizard” since it is very much not a hitty-poundy stat set.

You already missed it. A short while back there were free transfers to medium population servers.

We don’t want to destabilize WvW again as frequently happened while transfers were free. So, one of the only reasons you’ll probably see free transfers is to populate less populated servers.

Can’t I just use the infusions from the laurel vendor?

So, I never noticed the “unique” written on the item, and I didn’t know that meant I couldn’t equip 2 of the same ring on a character.

I’m a little frustrated at the moment, but someone told me that if I infuse one of the rings that I could equip them both. Can someone confirm this?

This isn’t feasible from a developer’s standpoint.

This isn’t a tabletop RPG; the developers need time and resources in order to create material, more than the GM, who can fly by the seat of their pants if need be.

So, that means in order for anything to be released in a reasonable amount of time it has to be prepared ahead of time. They can’t just stop in the middle of the event to ask what people want to do, and it’s impractical to prepare for so many outcomes that may not even see the light of day.

And you can’t vote ahead of time without spoiling the event.

Moreover, different servers can’t experience different story developments, otherwise some would feel cheated by being forced into a less desirable or interesting path.

@Raina:
The thing is, you can do both. You can do char swapping to get money in order to craft whilst gaining almost a level from the dungeon. The two tasks aren’t mutually exclusive regardless of monetary loss.

Also, I wasn’t aware that people swapped mid battle. I have always switched at the last checkpoint before the final boss and beaten him/her/it with the alt.

IamDuddits.1692:

Have you ever tried leveling up in WvWvW? In my opinion that would be a better alternative considering you are actually playing the character you are leveling (thus learning the profession) rather than piggy backing them to 80 on a character that you are already familiar with.

Yes, actually I have, and no, it’s nowhere near as fast. Besides WvW really isn’t my forte. I actually like the personal story, and dungeon leveling is an easy way to get the levels you need in order to do your next story step.

On top of that, have you seen the state of lfg’s lately? There are a lot of people who won’t take players under level 80. Char swapping is generally a nice compromise as the final boss is so very seldom defeated purely by dps, instead relying on a unique mechanic.

IamDuddits.1692:

Edit: To elaborate, I agree with you that after five characters (one of each race) there really is little incentive to level up through the content unless you really enjoy it. I think that a “level to 80” option would be good for veteran players that just want to get to the end game dungeons or whatever, however, I disagree with char swapping dungeons as being a solution for this.

The point of the game is for people to play as much as possible in order to become invested (thus increasing the possibility that you share it with friends or purchase something from the store). Even dungeon leveling through char swapping has a significant time investment.

However a button/option which essentially says “Boop, you’re done,” doesn’t support that idea. That more than character switching is a cop out which Anet would never implement without a significant cost to the player.

IamDuddits.1692:

Also, keep in mind that leveling the “old fashioned way” serves as a learning process for players to get familiar with a new class. While I’m not implying you are incapable of rapidly learning a class that you power leveled, I’d guess that a lot of people that leveled a new class in this manner end up hitting level 80 with no clue how to play their class properly which leads to miserable dungeon runs for other players.

A bad player is a bad player. I do use my alts in PvE and personal story, so I know how to use them. Don’t confuse individual ineptitude for a broken system. Leveling alts by character swapping doesn’t mean that character isn’t getting used; you just don’t see how it’s used.

Edit:
Other than the DC issue (which is sort of a separate failure of the dungeon system), I’m not sure what experiences have lead to such a negative view of Char swapping for you.

However, personally, I do it for the party as much as myself. My 80 has more skills unlocked. Therefore, I can be more versatile, switching from support/healing/condition removal, to pure speed/evasion,and back to plain old DPS mid run as needed whereas my alt is pretty much speced for soloing (because PvE and personal story are largely individual efforts for me; I have to hold my own on my own).

Therefore, the run goes more smoothly than if had used my alt the entire time.

I always ask before the run if anyone would mind if I switch. If they had minded, I would either accept it or excuse myself from the party.

I don’t bring in alts who aren’t at least level appropriate for the dungeon, and I fight the final boss with my alt. I try to do as much work as I can not to inconvenience the party, so I don’t really see the problem the same way as you.

However, I think a valid solution would be to 1) Open the dungeon yourself and 2) simply tell people that you don’t want them char swapping.

The thing is, it’s very hard for a party without a mesmer or a guardian to get rid of those stacks of defiant in order to interrupt him at all, especially if you’re a PuG group with only the game’s chat system to rely on for in-combat coordination.

So, while there are some issues with the timing of the shield and the fact that he dies so easily as a melee fighter compounds the issue of not having the ability to put the boss into a position where he can be interrupted.

While I’m completely open to other ideas, I think the core issue that needs to be addressed is a built-in aspect to the guesting system in order to prevent large-scale abuse of the guesting feature.

I mean, I love being an open, welcoming server, but I don’t particularly appreciate what it’s done to the server (while abused), especially when those people aren’t even capable of helping the server out in things like WvW.

Kumu Honua.2751:

You STILL made your bed with the advertising. Now you get to live with those consequences. So if you don’t like how it all turned out, you can guest to another server to get away from it..

It’s wrong to assume that anyone has the authority to speak on TC’s behalf. I’m from TC, and I don’t even have that authority.

The things I say are the general observations and frustrations of a single player. If it resonates with people, then there might be something to it. However, even then we shouldn’t confuse the words of a few individuals for the feelings of the server. So, by all means, go to TC and see for yourself and make your own judgements.

But the thing is, we as a community consented to this role for TC, not just the people of the server, and it’s a problem. The guesting system doesn’t have a built-in system for alleviating these problems, so we as a community need to make a conscious counter-push if we want to see any improvements.

Kalea.9167:

Fiddlestyx.9714:

This is by far the best suggestion I have ever seen on these forums.
As it stands now people are just using other servers for their person gain.

I also wonder if they are even staying on the guest server between events, or ‘going home’ or to other servers in the interim. The ‘exploiters,’ it would stand to reason, would be chasing their person gain (loot) and not be hanging around to experience the community or do things with people on the server.

You kind of have to stay here. If you want any chance of getting in another event somewhere else, you need to slip in before “Overflow” becomes a word on peoples lips.

danbuter.2314:

i started on TC, and it’s pretty great. I am not looking forward to zergs of people who are jsut there to loot and pillage, then disappear. Then again, if there were a few server merges, this wouldn’t happen. How many server worlds are there, currently? Maybe merge some of the smaller population ones.

There are currently 24 NA servers alone and none of them are listed as below “High” capacity.

The issue isn’t that there aren’t enough people on some servers; it’s that they’re going somewhere else to play.

Toxyn.9608:

Guesting implies a temporary stay. Guesting to a server should only work for 24 hours as a trial period. After 24 hours, you are locked out of guesting to that world for 30 days.

I mean really, how was this issue not foreseen?

Another alternative might be that to “guest” on a server, you need to be invited by someone who is on that server. After all, there is a different between inviting a guest into your home and a random hobo from off the street who just steps through your door and starts raiding your fridge.

Oh, I don’t mind guests, Cargan. I’m happy to have you all.

What really bothers me, though is that there are consistent pushes to declare TC the unofficial RP, Orr, Event, and Leveling server -which, face it, is 90% of the game.

So, there is a constant influx of people to the point where is becoming a problem. That’s what bothers me because I want the “unoffical” anything to be more spread out as to avoid overburdening any one server as has happened to TC.

That said, I like your idea. I need to get the biggest broom I can find and make sure my house is in the quietest retirement home I can afford.

Dear GW2 community,

While I understand and appreciate how awesome you think the Coast is, things are starting to get a little out of hand. With the implementation of the guesting system, there has been a massive influx of “tourists” to our fair server.

For a while, it was fine. I love Tarnished Coast’s community too. Our RPers are creative and our general chat is polite and helpful. However, since guesting I’ve stopped considering places like Orr to be a part of Tarnished Coast.

Our server is the place where the most people go for completing events and making sure temples are open. Very well. It’s a noble goal, but the thing is, the map is so full that it becomes impossible to tag anything on the best days (mostly in Orr), and on the worst days (with increasing frequency) for world events like the Shatterer and Claw our server’s timers are unreliable because there is the very real possibility that you’re going to be kicked into Overflow until the event is over and miss it altogether.

So, as of late, I’ve taken to guesting on less popular servers (ie anything other than TC) for high level areas and world events, and SURPRISE! I could actually get loot and rely on the timers. I was simply blown away by how much less lag those servers had.

Guys, I’m going to be that old man on the porch waving his broomstick, but I don’t want to have to constantly guest on other servers just to play the game normally any more than I want to drive to the community pool in the next town over because ours is too full from tourists. So, please, kindly get off our lawn.

TL;DR
Stop guesting on TC exclusively. Spread yourselves out among other servers or go back to your own server. There’s too much lag, it’s impossible to tag in Orr, and the timers for world events are becoming unreliable because you’ll probably be kicked into overflow until the event is over because of how many people are here.

EDIT:
I want this to be very clear: I’m not condemning RPing or people who guest on TC for RPing. All of you are fun, creative individuals whom I am proud to have on TC. In my personal opinion, you are all what make/have made this server so special to me. Moreover, you aren’t really at fault here. I HIGHLY doubt that the influx of RPers is causing such lag.

In addition, it’s not right to say that we need a new Unofficial RP server. They were here first. They established themselves here and the stray RP guest is not what’s causing issues.

What we need is a different mindset and mitigation. We can’t bog down any one server as the unofficial this, that, and everything else server. If these duties must exist, they need to be spread out among a number of servers, and they shouldn’t punish the RPers.

Recycle.5493:

The idea of a naive Sylvari and battle-hardened anything doesn’t make sense to me as a romantic interest. I always come back to the conversation between the asura and sylvari guarding the gate in the Grove, where the sylvari keeps asking about the Golem’s mother. The sheer childishness of the race somehow barriers the idea of a feasible relationship with more roughened persons.

Ok, let me try rephrasing that. A battle-scarred character. The contrast of naivety would provide a sense of healing for the rough character and give him/her an opportunity to see the world through a lens other than pain and violence.

Meanwhile, the more naive character comes to realize that the world isn’t all sunshine and roses; pain and violence are just as much a part of life as joy. Moreover, some things are worth fighting to protect.

Also, I don’t think that the childishness of the Sylvari race necessarily prevents them from connecting with rougher individuals, and not all Sylvari fall into the same mold of childishness. Caithe and Trahearne, for example, are more seasoned. And in Caithe’s case, she herself is a little more rough for wear in the wake of her fallout with Faolain.

Of course, both of those examples are from firstborn, the oldest of Sylvari, but it stands to reason that with the right experiences other Sylvari could grow into the same kind of maturity.

I’m sorry. I didn’t realize this was such a sensitive issue.
The idea of a battle-hardened Charr and a youthful, naive Sylvari as a couple just seemed sweet to me somehow.

I actually try to shout across the map with /say to pick up downed and dead players. As a WvW player, I know how obnoxious the walk back is even in PvE. The save a few copper and I get experience.

I already understand that the races of Tyria cannot procreate together, but are there any examples of inter-racial relationships within the game (ex. A charr and a norn cohabitating). If so, could you direct me to one of the examples?

Budg.3064:

I miss how they populated the world. I liked that there were small groups of AI running around killing things, it made the game world feel more alive. I would honestly love to see some Anet made AI doing what the bots did, without the looting and economy part.

But, they already do. Mobs and NPCs aggro off of one another. I’ve already seen scenarios where two event bosses were duking it out with one another.

I keep saying this, but don’t get too over zealous about reporting teleporting miners.

I’m not a bot, and I’ve gotten into the habit or parking my alts in front of resource nodes when I’m done with them.

Then when I decide to play next, I quickly pop onto each of my alts to snag the ore sitting in front of them before moving on with the character I want to play.

I often wonder how many times I’ve been reported.

What I’d like is to not have my guild’s influence wasted on a full-guild server transfer.

I’m sorry you can’t get in, but we RP guilds are fairly entrenched here on TC. It’s no more reasonable for us to move than it is to tell you to simply be patient and keep trying.

Besides, “unofficial” is the key word here. There is nothing official slating TC as an RP server. So, if you can round up enough people behind you, you can just as easily start an RP population on a different server, just as the OP is trying to do.

Karizee.8076:

Strike up random conversations with people. There were 3 Charr sitting on the bank steps, I went up and said they looked hungry and asked if they wanted a snack. They agreed that a snack would be tasty so I pulled out my Skritt pet. Hilarity ensued, they tried to BBQ the poor critter.

Oh yeah, that was fun.

But yeah, general RPing or even just dropping in to listen to RP sessions is a very good way of extending your game experience.

The people who say there’s bloody nothing to do at 80 are honestly a little narrow in their thinking. The game is what you make it. If your only goal is to do something finite (having a definitive end, such as reaching level 80, getting exotic/legendary gear), then yes, there is bloody nothing for you to do once you attain those goals. Honestly, put down the game for a while and move on to something else. Nothing is keeping you here and you won’t be left behind in the dust with any changes that happen while you’re gone.

Please don’t interpret that as antagonism, I do sincerely mean that you are free to leave, and we’ll miss you. But this game actually gives you the freedom to come back without any penalties.

At any rate, if your goals are more open-ended (such as social ones like playing with friends, making friends, or RPing), then you’ll have a much more enjoyable experience post-80 because then the games not about stuff or stats; it’s about the people you play with.

To make a long story short:
You make the game what you want it to be at 80. If you really feel there’s nothing left for you, then take a break for a while. You’re free to return for events or anything at a later date without being punished.

Make an alt and follow story paths you haven’t done before.

doomcrier.5830:

I did not collect data on the quality of the items dropped.

But… The quality of the drops is the point of MF, not the rate of drops in general.

For the record, not all teleporting miners are bots.

I’m not a bot, and I’ve gotten into the habit or parking my alts in front of resource nodes when I’m done with them.

Then when I decide to play next, I quickly pop onto each of my alts to snag the ore sitting in front of them before moving on with the character I want to play.

So, I’m playing on an alt and entering the Order of Whispers for the first time. Everything’s going great. The story is fun (if not a little easy at times), and Tybalt is clearly awesome beyond reason. However, then it comes time to actually visit the Whispers HQ in the story.

Why in the name of Grenth is a level 39 story step placed in an area with level 48 monsters? That’s a 9 level difference.

SERIOUSLY?! The monsters’ levels are displayed in purple. Purple!

I can stay on my toes enough to fight reds in small numbers, but a single purple can seriously wreck my day (and they did, frequently).

So, what I want to know is why? Is there any good reason for doing this? I’ve played through both the Vigil and Priory stories and have never encountered this issue in ANY other story step.

Really, why?

CapN Biku.6024:

In case you haven’t already. You can make the UI smaller in the options.

I can, but i’d rather have it be larger so that I can see things happening in my peripherial vision without having to squint at a small part of the screen when I should be paying attention to the battle.

This is a relatively minor problem, but it has it’s ramification in group scenarios.

Currently in the game, it’s possible to move the chat window to the top or bottom of the left hand side of the window. However, no matter where it sits over there, for me it tends to cover up the fourth individual on the list.

I realize that I have the ability to hide the chat bar, but in dungeons especially I like to keep it open so that I can quickly take notice of any new information or warnings from the others in my party (i.e. it’s easier to read when it’s not hidden).

I like playing a supportive role in groups, meaning that I need to keep an eye on not only who is in my party but also how much health as well as what conditions/boons are currently on them. The problem is that generally this all goes well for the first three people in the party. I know exactly when to heal, remove conditions, and apply boons to them. Yet, that fourth person, the one hidden under my chat bar, they’re the one most likely to die on my watch because, well, they’re not under my watch. I can ‘t see their health. Unless I happen to notice their health bar on the field, how they’re doing is a complete mystery to me.

To solve this, I think it’d be very beneficial if I could either move the chat window or the party bar to the other side of the screen for maximum visibility.

Thanks in advance, and thank you for taking the time to hear me out.

That’s so crazy. So on a day I have nothing to do, I could conceivably do every dungeon path twice for full rewards.

Thanks for the help.

Hello, I play on the Tarnished Coast server and recently became interested in dungeoneering in order to get the armor set I want. I know that running the same path in explorable mode twice in the same day yields less rewards. However, when exactly does the server day begin and end for Tarnished Coast?

Logic to me says it would be somewhere between 12:00 midnight EDT and 12:00 midnight PDT. However, someone else told me it was something random like 5:00 PM PDT.

I’d very much appreciate your help in this matter as I continue to plan effective dungeon exploration times.

WOW. No, just…WOW!

I can’t even begin to tell you how much of an improvement this is.
I mean, I can actually see things to my left and right. In heated battle, I can actually see what’s going on around me from the top-down. It really simplifies things.

I can’t say this enough: THANK YOU!

I could get behind this. I’m level 80 and I’ve never once used a transmutation stone for the simple reason that I didn’t want to continually destroy skins as I looted and crafted better equipment. It just seemed like such a waste. To counter that, I’m only going to buy one transmutation stone (for each piece of the set) after I’ve managed to create the best gear I can and find the skins I want.

But if I had a way of storing skins like collectables without loosing skins in the process, I’d be salvaging skins like crazy because I get more use out of the salvage. And if skin salvaging is gem-based, that means you’ll be getting more money from me.