Guild Wars 2

ECONOMIC AND GEM STORE CHANGES

• Tax cut – Sell order listing tax has been reduced to 2% and sales tax has been reduced to 8%. In the future we will gradually take the taxes down even further as we remove inflation sources where the game generates gold and as we add more sinks. The goal is to stimulate a strong economy where players do more trading through the post with one another than they do with NPCs.

• Changes to merchants – NPC merchants no longer buy upgrade items or crafting materials. The minimum price on all upgrades and materials has been set to one copper on the trading post.

• Salvaging upgrade items – You may now salvage runes, sigils and crests to gain stone, paper and linen.

• Forging exotic upgrade items – You can now throw four exotic runes or sigils into the Mystic Forge for a chance at a different exotic upgrade item.

• Salvaging Transmutation Stones – You may now salvage Transmutation Stones for Essences of Luck or a very rare chance to find a Transmutation Crystal within.

• New gem store items
  - A furniture category has been added to the BLTC with dozens of options to choose from.
  - Three new permanent town clothing sets have been added to the “Town Clothes” category.
  - One hour Eminence Boosters are now available for 80 gems each.
  - A Dark Matter Reactor, 1000 gems, allows players to uproot their house intact and move to a different neighborhood or lot.

• Changes to Champion Loot – Champion Loot Bags now drop players less gold in exchange for having a much higher chance at rarer items. This change was done so that players would not only acquire more items worth listing on the trading post, but also to bring the prices of exotic gear down to a median more affordable by new players.

• Changes to Globs of Ectoplasm – Exotic items now salvage up to seven ectoplasms. Rare items have had their ectoplasm salvages reduced to a maximum of one. Globs of Ectoplasms are now of rare quality and may drop directly from enemies.

• Changes to Icy Runestones – Completing a group event now has a very rare chance to award the player an Icy Runestone.

Wasp’s notes:
The great thing about horizontal progression is how flexible it is compared to vertical. If a player wants to become the richest man in Tyria by flipping items on the trading post, that’s progression for him. I’m not good at flipping, but I want to see the taxes lowered for other reasons too.

The main idea of this section is that rewards can often be directly proportional to horizontal character progression. Finding and selling items that are valuable to other players is more fun than selling junk to merchants. Right now players are hit hard by taxes when the list their loot on the post and casual players are finding themselves dropped one useful item per week.

With these updates I’m seeing a vision where blues and greens are sort of pushed out, junk items no longer exist, and merchants don’t buy goods from us. I am, of course, inspired by EVE where taxes are low and virtually every item is useful to players.

I also threw some cash shop stuff in there, mostly for fun. Also these are things I don’t think most players would mind. I’m trying to think on the developers’ side here as this is a lot of content to release for free.

Finally, town clothes are definitely a total horizontal thing. Their issue in the game right now is their lack of choice and lack of application. By making them default in neighborhoods and cities, selling more options and including a in-town run speed boost, I think we can generate more player interest in them. However, note that the sense of progression gained from buying an item with real money is extremely minimal, so it helps to tie some skins and features to PvE content instead.

VARIOUS FIXES

• Reverted human female running animation
• Fixed various armor clipping issues
• Guild chat is no longer erased when entering the character select screen
• Improvements to environment collision on underwater enemies
• Mystic Forge UI now updates when a stack is split
• Weapon summon skills no longer trigger full cooldown if interrupted before weapon spawns

Yeah, I just did that section for fun.

• Stat tracking and colored titles – The new titles “His Eminence” and “Her Eminence” appear in gold. Expect to see more colored titles in the future. Three new statistics have been added and may be displayed at your account house.
  - Number of nodes gathered
  - Boasts completed
  - Zones explored (number of 100% completions accumulated over all characters)

• Mail improvements – The mail UI now includes three checkboxes:
  - Show player mail – Mail sent by other players
  - Show ArenaNet mail – BLTC purchases, birthday letters and notifications
  - Show story mail – Living story, personal story and map completion mails

• Crafting, trading post and gem store UI revamped – Crafting and BLTC user interfaces have been merged and integrated. More accurate categories now replace the old ones in the trading post. For example: Heavy, medium and light armor now have separate categories, and you may now find new sections such as “Back Items” or “Skins.” When mousing over crafting components, they now display the number required per refinement and the number of refined and unrefined materials you already possess.
  - The gem store now includes separate sections for costumes, town clothes and armor.
  Collectable expanders have been reduced to 400 gems and the collectable section of the bank now includes an “Expand Collectables” button.
  - Crafting categories have been divided down into subcategories. Main categories now show Refinements, Armor (or Weapons), Upgrades and Other. All categories now start collapsed by default.

• Automatic crafting and combined crafting – A new section has been added to the crafting UI that lists current, future and past jobs. You may now set recipes to automatically complete when the materials become available whether you are online or not. Crafting in this manner does not grant character or crafting experience. You may deposit gold here to fund automatic Black Lion Dolyak Deliveries to acquire fulfilled buy orders.
  - All crafting now occurs in the account house. Players must buy the necessary crafting stations and place them in the crafting room. However, while still limited to two crafting trades per character, you may now access all of your characters’ crafting abilities at once.
  - Crafting stations in all major cities have been replaced with neighborhood portals and market representatives.

Wasp’s Notes:
Despite the neighborhoods and houses being the largest part of this update as far as content goes, this section is what players are going to feel the most. The underlying theme here is a focus on player characters. From a non-roleplayer’s standpoint, this part is going to provide new opportunities and QoL improvements that will make their life easier. For a roleplayer you would have switched the focus off of Logan, off of Trahearne and other story NPCs such as Kiel and Scarlet. Instead the focus would now sit with our characters who can now finally say “This is MY story” and mean it.

I think custom biographies in MMOs are just too cool and should not be scrubbed in exchange for the game’s story. If anything, roleplayers use them to make the game’s lore more robust. As far as relationship systems go, we’ve seen enough games prove that players like them. Just because these two features aren’t for everybody doesn’t mean they won’t be appreciated.

If I were tasked with writing the story that would launch the neighborhood and housing feature I would come up with something along the lines of: Queen Jennah wanted to reward the heroes of Tyria for their works against Zhaitan so she designated land to start building neighborhoods for them.

I think the story (or living story) should be about us this time. I think the added interaction between an account’s characters (such as combined crafting or marrying your own characters) really adds a value to making alt characters (alts are the epitome of horizontal progression by the way).

It is better to have our characters achieve great things that don’t make sense for millions of heroes to accomplish than it is to pass all progression off to an NPC. In other words:

GOOD: Our immersion is slightly broken because the game has 121 neighborhood instances that all have the same landscape. However, it’s OUR neighborhood based on OUR community reactions. Progression is based on our effort and reputation.

BAD: Dessa found a fractal artifact that allowed her to create unlimited dimensions and she created countless labs which we as the players are allowed to visit. She lets us decorate and stay there, but the game constantly reminds us that it’s her lab. It’s not a bad story, but it would be another case of our gameplay being hindered to try to make a story make sense and an NPC more prominent.

200% world completion would be GW2’s alternative to GW1’s vanquishing. However, the planning team needs to be VERY mindful of the potential damage each boast can do to a zone. Imagine 10% of the community showing up to fight Tequatl with frying pans or disabled downed mode. It sounds funny until you’re part of the 90%. Done tactfully, showing up to a more simple event with a frying pan that a new player initiated is still way better than not having other players on the map at all.

For the time being, people are going to want those housing materials and that should stimulate some open world activity. Overall kills needs to be the best way to get these items, I would advise against including them in more static content like dungeon rewards or champion loot. (Though the items dropping from champion loot will yield signets for salvaging into stone.)

INTERFACE AND CHARACTER IMPROVEMENTS

• Inspect, biographies and notes — Now when you right click on another player character you may choose to inspect them. The stats of their gear will remain hidden, but you may view the skins and rarity of their items. A second tab of the inspect interface will display their order, personality and custom biography should they choose to write one. The third tab allows you to write notes about them. Notes are saved on your PC and will not display to anyone else in the game.

• Teleporting to your house or clicking deposit collectable now displays a flashing animation

• Utilization of town clothes — In addition to town clothes popping up by default when zoning into a neighborhood or city, wearing town clothes now grants permanent swiftness while in appropriate areas. This swiftness is disabled if the player toggles walk on.

• Character trade slots — All characters are now granted four slots where they may place items they wish to trade with other characters on the account. Harvesting tools may be used directly from these slots. Picked up an account bound item for your elementalist while playing ranger? Toss it in your trade slot and you won’t have to worry about forgetting to throw it in the bank. Next time you are playing as your elementalist, just return him/her to house to trade with your ranger.

• New character select screen — Now when you log on you’ll see the interior of your house. With the house already loaded, you may swap between your characters and manage inventories with minimal load times before you choose to exit your home and return to where you left off.

• The “Well-Connected” buff – All players owning a house will receive an account-wide buff that displays next to their consumable buffs. Your friends, neighbors and alternate characters have motivated you to do better out in the field. Receive…
  5-20% Magic Find
  1-5% more hitpoints
  10% increased passive movement speed
  5-20% bonus experience gain
  …based on the level of your house.
  - Applies ONLY in PvE

• Relationship status – You may change the title of your “Well-Connected” buff by entering into a relationship with another character within or outside of your account. For now you may choose “Loved” or “Married.” Charr characters who choose to marry will be subject to two weeks under the title of “Scorned” and their neighbors may find rolls of toilet paper stashed outside their gate to decorate the deviant couple’s yard(s) with. However, charr and sylvari are immune to the “Divorced” status effect. “Divorced” works the same as “Scorned” only it applies after a marriage has been severed on a norn, human or asura character.
  - Mousing over the “Married,” “Loved” or “Scorned” buff will display the name of the other involved character. None of the relationship or “Well-Connected” buffs apply or display in WvW or PvP. This way you do not gain an unfair advantage nor do you put your loved ones in danger by exposing their identity to enemies.

• Account binding and fitting – All Soulbound on Acquire gear is being converted to Account Bound on Acquire. Activating an article of gear now changes its status to “Fitted” instead of “Soulbound.” Certain quest items remain soulbound.

• Refitting – Speak to a new Reffiting NPC to have your fitted gear converted to Account Bound for a fee of one gold. All characters may now pull fitted items into their inventories regardless of whether it is fitted to them or a different character on the account. Transmutation Crystals may also be used to transfer a fitting from one character to another. However, cross armor type or cross racial fittings remain restricted.

• First-person zoom – While out of combat and standing still, you may now zoom your view all the way in to a first-person perspective. You will need to utilize this to make it through the new neighborhood jumping puzzles. /sleep is no longer required to take unobstructed screenshots.

• Black Lion Delivery Dolyak – Don’t have enough time to run from your house to the trading post representative in the center of the neighborhood? Select “Deliver Black Lion Goods” in your inventory options while you’re out exploring to have a dolyak make the trip for you. The delivery price is 10 silver. You may also opt to use dolyak delivery in your auto-crafting UI should your buy order for materials be fulfilled while you are away or offline.

Wasp’s Notes:
I think this section is clear in how it can affect horizontal progression. I also added a few things that did not, just because I was getting in the spirit of a fantasy update. One thing that isn’t written is exactly how much time Eminence would take to max out or just how much you could display in your house. I did that on purpose because this is a pretty extensive update and I can see some value in a discovery period for this content. Since this is imaginary I’ll say as a player I would like to be pleasantly surprised by just how much the game allows me to show off in terms of achievements as well as having great plans for future additions. I would also request (to the story team) that the NPCs in the neighborhood zones be more subtle than elsewhere in the world and that the dialogue and story focus would be player character centric.

Also look at the framework we just built for potential future features:

1. We opened up the title system and modified it to allow colored titles leaving the possibility of legendary titles and character (not account) based titles.
2. With a focus on QoL account and character features as a bonus to having a house, we could also look into tracking combat statistics for better build testing.
3. The festival grounds allow for wedding ceremonies and parties. Maybe even guild hosted events. Some would be represented through the game’s features and others just roleplayed by players.
4. The SAB jukebox already exists in the game, we can use it as a base for creating a system that allows for music selection within a house.
5. The neighborhood could also be used to hold a GW1 style pet menagerie for rangers. Pets should eventually be kept there instead of following players around while in a neighborhood.

Alright back to imaginary update poster mode:

PVE CHANGES AND NEW CONTENT

• Changes to event rewards — Open world dynamic events are no longer subject to diminishing returns. Some larger, longer or end-of-chain events were given increased gold, experience and karma rewards for participation. In addition, completing any event now yeilds a rare chance at a chest containing a blueprint for furniture themed by region.
  IE. Doing Ascalon events is your best chance at charr furniture or decorations.

• New collectables — Paper, Stone and Tar now drop and salvage from enemies and items. Salvaging signets will always yield stone, underwater kills and tar elementals can drop tar and humanoid enemies (bandits, nightmare court, skritt, inquest .etc) may drop paper. These new materials are used in the crafting of housing decorations and copying blueprints.

• Paint — Paint is a new drop type similar to dye, however colors are unlocked by account and not by character. Collect them all for maximum house coloring options. Some decoration recipes require unused specific paint colors to craft.

• Boast challenges — In certain parts of the world you may partake in boast challenges that hinder your character while you attempt to do normal content. Currently we have added two challenges to Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateu.

The challenge in Wayfarer Foothills involves disabling downed state (if you would get downed you get defeated instead) while attempting to survive combo kills. Every time you draw fire from five or more enemies and defeat them you gain a point. But watch out! Competive norn will sneak up and ambush you during your most stressful moments.

The charr in Diessa Plateu are seeking out the toughest cook of all time. Accept their challenge and you’ll find yourself dressed like a chef with only a frying pan for a weapon. With greatly reduced armor levels and a unique set of frying pan skills you must vanquish 50 enemies of 7 different varieties before the time is up. Complete the task in record time for a greater reward.

Temporarily, the rewards for completing boasts are one, two or three champion loot bags depending on how well you did.

Wasp’s notes:
Boast challenges were an idea I had a month or so after release because I felt we needed an open world alternative to hardmode that does not separate you or the zone instance from the other players fighting normal enemies. I would suggest filling the worlds with these until they can be incorporated into a 200% world completion system.

NEIGHBORHOODS AND ACCOUNT HOUSING

After a long day of keeping Tyrian homes safe, your characters may now rest in a house of their own. New neighborhoods have begun popping up north of Divinity’s Reach and it’s up to YOU to populate them.

• New feature and item: House Deeds
  After purchasing a lot in a neighborhood you receive an unlimited use item which will instantly teleport you to your home. Does not work in combat or instances. At your house you may activate a portal to teleport back to exactly where you left off. Any player with a deed may select “Invite To House” on other players, and in the future, certain NPCs.

• New zone: Tyrian Neighborhood
  Each neighborhood includes 55 lots, 50 housing lots and five reserved for future guild halls. In the middle players will find a town hall, a Mystic Forge conduit, festival grounds and merchant, trading post and bank services.
  In addition to providing a place to live, the neighborhoods will include many other activities as well:

• Neighborhood Treasure Hunt – Skritt have hidden their shinies in the area! Can you find them?
  Whether the event happens in your neighborhood or another, you can still participate. If you don’t lock your doors the treasure may be found inside YOUR house. Be sure to welcome the crowd of greedy treasure hunters with a smile.

• Three new Jumping Puzzles – Looking for a better vantage point to spy on your neighbors? Each zone comes complete with three new puzzles looming over everybody’s homes. The third and final puzzle ends above the center of the neighborhood. Completing all three in sequence will grant you a bonus chest. NOTE: Skill bars are disabled within the puzzle.

• Skritt costume brawl – Skritt have gotten into the festival costumes again! Battle skritt, children, players and other NPCs near the festival grounds with your costumes and toys. Counts toward Costume Brawl daily and community achievements.

• Visitation and Eminence – Visit others and receive guests to accumulate Visitation Points.
  - You gain 25 Visitation Points for each unique house you visit and 1-10 for each return visit depending on number of days since your last arrival.
  - Unique guests give you 100-1000 Visitation Points depending on their level of Eminence.
  - Returning guests apply 10-100 Visitation Points to your account along with their unique amount if they have leveled in Eminence since the last visit.
  - Eminence levels are gained primarily through visitation points, however certain titles and achievements can contribute as well:
  Golden – Hall of Monuments achievements – Zhaitan vanquished – 100% world completion – The Emperor – (Future) Story or neighborhood tasks – (Future) Guild influence contribution
  - Max out your Eminence level to gain the new gold colored title “His Eminence” or “Her Eminence.”

More neighborhood applications for Eminence coming soon!

• Furniture and blueprints – Find rare blueprints in your adventures and use them to craft furniture for your house. See a table you absolutely MUST have in your neighbor’s house? Perhaps he’ll be nice enough to let you copy his blueprints. Display your own blueprints to attract visitors. They’ll need to bring their own paper if they want to copy them of course.
  - Collectables aside, hundreds of furniture options can be purchased for gold at the town hall and for gems from the Black Lion Trading Company. Most furniture can be modified by paint.

• Housing upgrades and upkeep – Improve and expand your house to increase both its appeal and its benefit to your account. Well kept houses provide bonus exp and buffs to your characters in PvE. Upgraded houses cost more in upkeep but allow for greater bonuses and more Visitation Points gain from guests. Unkept houses do not provide bonuses or gain any Visitation Points at all.
  Bonuses include:
  - Rested EXP, Idle characters automatically return to the house to get rest
  - Application of the Well-Connected, Loved, Married, Divorced and Scorned buffs (check the Characters and Interface section for more details)
  - Permanent run speed increase while in a neighborhood zone
  - Waypoint cost reduction per character per zone 100% complete
  - Permanent zero waypoint cost to all major cities
  - Access to indoor services such as crafting, armor repair, training dummies and trait retraining