Guild Wars 2

Galactic.6453:

Djinn.9245:

“comparable loot drops to just playing normally”. So they ARE stealing from us if you are correct about the “comparable loot drops to just playing normally”

Greens and blues are worthless as actual gear and they just stopped pretending it isn’t and just consolidated them all together into one item

No they didn’t. Greens and blues still drop at least equal in number to UnID gear according to the posts I’ve read.

Ashen.2907:

Djinn.9245:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Excellent Name.9574:

Galactic.6453:

Excellent Name.9574:

Mystic or Master Kits to salvage Blue or Green gear

Yeah that’s why I said it makes no difference because you get the same basic mats either way.
Green sigils could gain to rise a bit in price because they’re worth jacks- at the moment. And it’s not like PoF will be the only content ever to exist now, plenty of people will still be doing the HoT map metas and world bosses and whatnot. Regular greens and blues will still be abundant.

If Anet planned this to solve the inventory problem, which I seriously doubt as it does not, it will go live in the entire game, not just PoF otherwise what would be the point? Not only green sigils and rune will rise, all of the materials that I mentioned will escalate. UND gear is just blue until identified.

It’s the “best of both worlds” because it solves inventory issues while out playing the game, meaning you only need to deal with your loot once per play session. Green sigils and runes are worthless atm, none of the materials will go up in cost since the supply is going to increase dramatically. Unid gear is NOTHING at all, until you id it, the loot does not exist until you get it ID’d which is essentially trading in your green unid tickets for loot.

It doesn’t matter what Unidentified Gear is because it doesn’t come from nowhere. It REPLACES gear that you would have received. Is the number of green salvageable trophies worth as much as all of the other drops I would have received before this replaced them? Including the rares and exotics? I don’t know and neither do you.

You speak as though your opinion on what will happen is fact. You don’t actually have any relevant evidence about what will happen.

Honest questions here,

Do we know for a fact that unid gear is replacing anything as opposed to being an addition?

Do we know that unid gear, if it is replacing something, isnt replacing a blue or green drop that couldnt have been salvaged for any more than the unid can? In fact, since green gear can not produce ectos, precursors, etc do we know for a fact that unid gear isnt actually replacing something of potentially significantly lower value?

If you read my post that you are answering, these are the questions I’m asking. Heimskarl posts as though he knows the answers. No one does. What I do know is that unless I want to simply salvage a container without knowing what is in it, Identifying what is in it will cost quite a bit of $ and also my time to complete a Heart first. These known facts alone cause me to not like this new system.

Excellent Name.9574:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Djinn.9245:

…this will not be true for people who don’t have good Magic Find which is most of the players.

In which case they can salvage the unid directly for more materials than they would get from regular drops or sell them on the TP to those with high MF to make more gold profit. Where’s the issue?

The issue is that You are using drop and salvage rates from the demo, which are significantly higher than in the rest of Tyria at face value.

Your information tells us that Rares will now occupy 20% of the drops instead of less than 3% and less than 1% for exotics, You are also counting that he salvage rate will differ to that of Tyria at double the rate. This would completely break the game and the economy which has been pretty stable for over a year now.

And that’s just from a sample of 85 which is nothing. Could be a lucky streak for all we know. Yet he keeps pointing to it as though it is statistically relevant.

Cirian.8917:

My first attempt at posting was over 7,000 characters apparently and there’s a 6,000 limit, so I’m posting some bullet pointed thoughts here that I couldn’t fit in the previous post.

Just wanted to let you know that I liked both your posts and agreed with much of them. I really don’t understand why Anet wrote the game this way. It seems like they didn’t even consider that new players would be picking up the game in the middle and not have played some or all of the first stories / expansion. Nevermind as you mentioned the extreme lack of consideration of all the different races.

And the OP’s topic is just 1 more example of the writing not taking into account the character’s previous actions. I played a human through the Shining Blade episode and I was definitely offended that they made my character who is such a hero stand there and have rocks thrown at him and take an oath because they can’t trust him to keep secrets. Terrible story.

Being human, I wouldn’t have minded being invited to join the Shining Blade, but I seriously object to being forced to join because I’m not trustworthy!

Rashagar.8349:

The reason why this thread is a bit of a mess is that people have been more interested in going on unrelated tangents like extolling the virtues of one definition over another rather than actually answering the OP with the OP’s supplied definition of the term in mind. The other definitions are immaterial to the discussion because the discussion is (or should be) about the group categorised by the OP’s use of the term.

Thank you, this is exactly the problem. The players that always argue in threads like these have tried their best to derail and muddy the issue. As usual.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Djinn.9245:

Dashingsteel.3410:

already been through it???? What did everyone decide the definition of casual is?

Read the thread.

I did and I’m still don’t see where people agreed about the definition. It’s a poor word choice to get the OP’s point across and I really wish y’all would stop using it.

I didn’t say we agreed about the definition, I said we had been through the discussion about it. Yes there were a variety of ideas about “casual”, but the general rule of forums is that you stick to the OP’s topic in a thread. The OP has defined what he means by “casual” so nothing more need be said. This thread is about the OP’s definition of “casual”. If people don’t agree with the OP’s definition or don’t want to talk about “casual” as the OP defines it they should not be replying to this thread. They should start their own thread. The only reason to continue arguing about “casual” is to be pedantic.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Djinn.9245:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Djinn.9245:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

You’re just thinking about this from the wrong end. It’s just a different system. Rares and exotics are not mixed into the bunch, they do not exist until you ID the trophies. Imagine they are a chest that has a random item inside and a better chance at getting a rare than you do from drops and that it costs you 1.68s to open them. The beauty is that if you just want materials, you can salvage them directly and get a lot more materials than you do usually, like a LOT more.

This is not how people think. People want to know what is in the bag. And if there is a chance that what is in the bag is something good, even if the chance is small, people will want to know even more. That is why gamble chests and grab bags in stores work.

The developers are counting on this very thing for BL chests and the new gamble boxes. So they obviously understand exactly how this new UnID Gear will work. So a large number of, if not most, people will want to ID the gear. New players will not have good Magic Find and so will probably not even break even from the cost of ID. So as I said the new players lose. Just what GW2 needs…

No, they will still end up with luck to increase their MF as well as comparable loot drops to just playing normally.

It’s interesting that you are consistently presenting your ideas as fact. Do you work for Anet and you’re just hoping they don’t figure out that you’re answering questions? If you don’t work for Anet you actually have no idea.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

They already have low MF so don’t get a lot of rares regardless. The 1.68s cost will be more than equalled out by material rewards, that’s how these gold sinks work, its not trying to steal anything from you, it is you exchanging some silver for more materials and skins. That’s it.

Yes, they have to PAY 1.68s to get the “comparable loot drops to just playing normally”. So they ARE stealing from us if you are correct about the “comparable loot drops to just playing normally”. We have to pay $ and time, as Whitworth and others have pointed out, to get the “comparable loot drops to just playing normally”.

I meant comparable drops and value after you take out the cost to ID. They want to remove gold from the economy, not materials.

First, you don’t actually know. Second, this will not be true for people who don’t have good Magic Find which is most of the players.

Tanner Blackfeather.6509:

Did the Unid’ed stuff ever drop rares/exotics that was not PoF-specific?

Because if not, that completely removes the continually mentioned “it might be a precursor/really expensive exotic”. The value of identifying will then be entirely depending on the price of the new PoF skins (impossible to know yet), and ectos.

Since Unidentified Gear REPLACES some of the drops we would have received anyway, if the only rares/exotics we receive from UnID are PoF-specific, then this system has potentially nerfed our rewards in yet another way!

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Djinn.9245:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

You’re just thinking about this from the wrong end. It’s just a different system. Rares and exotics are not mixed into the bunch, they do not exist until you ID the trophies. Imagine they are a chest that has a random item inside and a better chance at getting a rare than you do from drops and that it costs you 1.68s to open them. The beauty is that if you just want materials, you can salvage them directly and get a lot more materials than you do usually, like a LOT more.

This is not how people think. People want to know what is in the bag. And if there is a chance that what is in the bag is something good, even if the chance is small, people will want to know even more. That is why gamble chests and grab bags in stores work.

The developers are counting on this very thing for BL chests and the new gamble boxes. So they obviously understand exactly how this new UnID Gear will work. So a large number of, if not most, people will want to ID the gear. New players will not have good Magic Find and so will probably not even break even from the cost of ID. So as I said the new players lose. Just what GW2 needs…

No, they will still end up with luck to increase their MF as well as comparable loot drops to just playing normally.

It’s interesting that you are consistently presenting your ideas as fact. Do you work for Anet and you’re just hoping they don’t figure out that you’re answering questions? If you don’t work for Anet you actually have no idea.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

They already have low MF so don’t get a lot of rares regardless. The 1.68s cost will be more than equalled out by material rewards, that’s how these gold sinks work, its not trying to steal anything from you, it is you exchanging some silver for more materials and skins. That’s it.

Yes, they have to PAY 1.68s to get the “comparable loot drops to just playing normally”. So they ARE stealing from us if you are correct about the “comparable loot drops to just playing normally”. We have to pay $ and time, as Whitworth and others have pointed out, to get the “comparable loot drops to just playing normally”.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Excellent Name.9574:

Galactic.6453:

Excellent Name.9574:

Mystic or Master Kits to salvage Blue or Green gear

Yeah that’s why I said it makes no difference because you get the same basic mats either way.
Green sigils could gain to rise a bit in price because they’re worth jacks- at the moment. And it’s not like PoF will be the only content ever to exist now, plenty of people will still be doing the HoT map metas and world bosses and whatnot. Regular greens and blues will still be abundant.

If Anet planned this to solve the inventory problem, which I seriously doubt as it does not, it will go live in the entire game, not just PoF otherwise what would be the point? Not only green sigils and rune will rise, all of the materials that I mentioned will escalate. UND gear is just blue until identified.

It’s the “best of both worlds” because it solves inventory issues while out playing the game, meaning you only need to deal with your loot once per play session. Green sigils and runes are worthless atm, none of the materials will go up in cost since the supply is going to increase dramatically. Unid gear is NOTHING at all, until you id it, the loot does not exist until you get it ID’d which is essentially trading in your green unid tickets for loot.

It doesn’t matter what Unidentified Gear is because it doesn’t come from nowhere. It REPLACES gear that you would have received. Is the number of green salvageable trophies worth as much as all of the other drops I would have received before this replaced them? Including the rares and exotics? I don’t know and neither do you.

You speak as though your opinion on what will happen is fact. You don’t actually have any relevant evidence about what will happen.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Excellent Name.9574:

…I think You are missing a large portion of the information. Unidentified gear is not an add-on to normal loot, but rather a partial replacement of the standard loot. From my weekend approx calc, around 50% of the loot is replaced with unidentified gear. that means, roughly, You are getting 50% less rares, 50% fewer exotics, 50% fewer greens, and 50% fewer blues, unless und gear RNG loot table is different to normal drop. In essence You are losing money, either way, do the identification or don’t. You are talking about the needed Gold sink to keep the price in check, but completely ignoring the surefire outcome of the materials price hike that will come out of this. UND is no-win no-win mechanic.

Sigh. Look at this example.

You are getting 200% or more materials from salvaging the unids.

Also, if you can show me another place I can get a 20% chance for rares at a cost of 1.68s, I’ll be playing there all day.

You keep pointing to an example of 85 as though a number that small has any statistical relevance whatsoever!

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

You’re just thinking about this from the wrong end. It’s just a different system. Rares and exotics are not mixed into the bunch, they do not exist until you ID the trophies. Imagine they are a chest that has a random item inside and a better chance at getting a rare than you do from drops and that it costs you 1.68s to open them. The beauty is that if you just want materials, you can salvage them directly and get a lot more materials than you do usually, like a LOT more.

This is not how people think. People want to know what is in the bag. And if there is a chance that what is in the bag is something good, even if the chance is small, people will want to know even more. That is why gamble chests and grab bags in stores work.

The developers are counting on this very thing for BL chests and the new gamble boxes. So they obviously understand exactly how this new UnID Gear will work. So a large number of, if not most, people will want to ID the gear. New players will not have good Magic Find and so will probably not even break even from the cost of ID. So as I said the new players lose. Just what GW2 needs…

The cost of materials doesn’t matter. What will ultimately happen is less rare & exotic (including precursors?) because a certain percentage of them are hidden behind Unidentified Gear. Only those with high Magic Find have a good chance of getting rares & exotics, so screw the new players. The new players get to either just salvage their UnID or pay exorbitantly in both $ and time to ID it for a not-good chance at better stuff.

Sounds great for the old players with high Magic Find. Too bad for everyone else.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Let’s face it, this is a gold sink. It may later be a means to entice purchase of an identify kit from the gem store, along with another shared slot to put it in. If the gold sink is needed, then it should not also come with added inconvenience, which may or may not later be partially circumvented by a gem store item. If they wanted to use gambling for items as a gold sink, they could have done something like they did for the Canthan New Year. But no, they had to mess with loot.

This is not a feature to save bag space for the entire player base. It may save some small amount of space for those who won’t bother IDing anything. The UNID’d item is just another unopened bag which can be salvaged. Other containers dropped for me in PoF, along with some blue and green item drops. Space saving was no better than getting stacking bags in HoT.

The only benefit for anyone that’s new is the salvage-without-opening option. If this was truly about saving bag space, all they had to do was use one container for a map rather than several. They also could have emulated the salvage option by adding a second item type whose only purpose was to be salvaged — no ID needed or possible.

No, they had to tie the two aspects of the feature together, in a way that adds time, inconvenience and cost to anyone whose interest is in seeing what loot they got. I have to say, I’m kinda … disgusted.

Yea, it’s a big mess. Let’s do WHATEVER they were trying to do in the most complicated, least convenient way possible.

Some people are confused, some people aren’t.

Dashingsteel.3410:

already been through it???? What did everyone decide the definition of casual is?

Read the thread.

BoogerSammich.7189:

Linken.6345:

BoogerSammich.7189:

Daddicus.6128:

BoogerSammich.7189:

It’s not irrelevant.
In fact, it’s entirely relevant.
we are talking about carrying around gear.
ID’ing the gear and/or salvaging it is a completely different conversation.

OK, so you’re saying we can ID 250 items, and put them … where?

If you ID a stack of items, that requires 250 slots. Otherwise, you can’t finish IDing the stack.

If you are carrying around a stack of 250 unidentified gear, it takes ONE inventory slot..
If you are carrying around 250 pieces of identified gear, then it takes 250 inventory slots.
249 inventory slots saved with the unidentified gear. full stop.

Now, if you decide to ID the gear, then you have taken action to convert the unidentified gear into actual gear.
You no longer have unidentified gear, through your actions you now have identified gear.
It is at this point that the conversation changes because you have taken action to convert the unidentified gear into individual pieces of gear.

But again, so long as you continue to have unidentified gear, then inventory slots are saved.

Yes true but we already had something that stacked in 250 bags of masterful gear. (3 items in each so thats 750 in that stack comparibly)

We dident need to pay about 5 silver to get the 3 pieces of gear out of those so why the change now?

Yeah, I’m not sure why they didn’t just go with a new stackable bag type instead of the unidentified gear.

Cause they wanted to add more gamble and / or because they wanted to sell us a gear ID tool in the gemstore.

Dashingsteel.3410:

This thread is still a jumbled mess because everyone has their own definition of the word casual.

OP, could you please give specific things that the developers need to do to “remember the casuals”

This request is just too vague.

We’ve already been through this in this thread.

Kalavier.1097:

Djinn.9245:

Luckily, I don’t want an instance filled with cats. Also the cats are sometimes in very out-of-the way places in your instance so I wouldn’t see them anyway so I don’t care. If I had more control over my Home Instance so I could place things and cats, and turn certain cats on and off to make it new and different now and then, I would be more interested in getting more cats / stuff.

They added a device that can hide the cats for your next visit into home instance.

I don’t want to just hide all the cats. If I didn’t want any cats at all I wouldn’t have gone out of my way to feed some. I just want the ability to change it up. Like “hey it’s winter – time for the snowball cats” or " this week I want to only show all the ginger cats" etc.

Deadric.1427:

I hated HoT until I actually sat down and gave it a serious chance. The maps kind grow on you really. I still hate the lack of solo content in them though as I am just not a group player. Probably why I still enjoy the heck out of the original. Love my heros!

The maps may grow on YOU, but I have played HoT plenty (just finishing up Chuka & Chamapwat) and I still dislike it more than any other content in the game.

Lokki.1092:

STIHL.2489:

Rhanoa.3960:

STIHL.2489:

Djinn.9245:

STIHL.2489:

maddoctor.2738:

STIHL.2489:

Well I spent a little time back in VB , and I have noticed there are a lot less mobs floating around, and they seem much easier then I remember.

They did not change mob spawns in VB it’s same as it was at launch. As for difficulty, the only thing I remember changing was the itzel shadowleaper ability to evade ranged attacks, it know evades projectiles not all ranged attacks if I’m not mistaken. If anything, at launch it was easier due to the number of players around.

Of course if you were trying to move through while the dozens of players were fighting in events, it was more than likely you had to fight event-scaled mobs and maybe those caused you all that trouble. Spawning scaling mobs is the normal thing to do even on core tyria maps, try moving through the area around Tequatl when the event is active and you will notice mobs that 1-shot you, or moving between the Penit-Shelter waypoints in Cursed Shore while either event is ongoing. That’s not HoT-specific

Humm, well it felt like such a slog the first few months I tried to play, to the point that exploring was not so much about exploring and seeing the zone and looking at what was about, it was all nothing but these endless stupid hard fights… all the time.

Also I did a flamethrower engineer for the stability boon in HoT, because all that stuff has those stupid knock backs.

Understand that what you are responding to is an opinion presented as fact. There is no hard data on exactly what was changed. It is my opinion that people who liked HoT quickly became acclimated to the mobs / maps and so didn’t find them as difficult as I and many other casual players did in the first place.

Well I just got back over a long absence, and have no idea how most of m skills work.. as such my play-style at time looks like this.. .

And somewhere in there it’s the games fault, never the player.

Wait, so what you are saying is that it is the players fault for any game they don’t like?
or put another way, you are saying that it’s your fault for no liking games like Archeage and Blackgold?

Well, I an’t say I will agree with you, but if blaming yourself for every game you don’t like works for you.. keep at it.

Seems like the implication is that you seem to be admitting you have no idea how to play your class, or this game.

That doesn’t mean the game is hard, it just means you have no idea how to play (by your own admission).

Coming to the conclusion that the game is too hard and therefore a bad game, seems shortsighted and placing the blame on someone else rather than yourself.

I’m not responding to Rhanoa’s rude post because I hope it will soon be removed. However, both of you seem to have failed to read STIHL’s words about not liking HoT and not playing at all from HoT intro until recently. STIHL’s skills now have nothing to do with his original comment about HoT. R.I.F.

The Greyhawk.9107:

silvermember.8941:

Aomine.5012:

The Greyhawk.9107:

marelooke.9708:

(that said, I do really hope they will be disabled in cities)

THIS. This is an important feature that Arenanet absolutely HAS to implement or it will be a complete deal breaker for me. Mounts MUST not be summon-able within LA or any of the five racial cities. If this isn’t implemented I’ll probably not continue playing.

XD if you can’t stand something like that, I’m surprised you could keep playing this game until now. Not like it’d affect you in any negative way.

I agree. All those pink hair and terrible auras are far worse than anything mounts could do. Mounts at least do no clash with the game’s aesthetic.

Ever heard the phrase ‘The Straw that broke the camel’s back’? Meditate on that.
Look, mounts SCALE, which means that with every Charr or Norn mount we’re going to have something half the size of a T-rex parked at high player traffic areas like crafting stations, the mystic toilet, unique merchants, and banks. Don’t don’t think people won’t do it just to be kittens. Cities don’t need mounts, the waypoints are practically stuffed together like sardines in a can. And you guys bring up clashing aesthetics when one of the mounts is a motherkittening giant rabbit.
Riiiiight.
Arenanet, do this one thing and I promise I’ll never say jack against mounts again.

Just in cities? How about boss chests, etc.

VanHalenRules.5243:

The point people make about GW2 not needing mounts is well taken, I felt the same before hearing of the PoF expansion. However, I think that this could be pretty cool if the developers add more activities using the mounts… like the race for example. Maybe they could add a new group of mini games like in Lion’s Arch for mounts, like a mount version of sanctum sprint or something (yes the current mount race is kinda like it, but it’s too plain and there are no skills used in it which make it kinda stupid imo). Would be fun to see more mini games.

I certainly hope not. I will not play minigames so they are useless to me. I would prefer more story / map / armor / etc. Yes I know that the same people don’t make all these things. But less $ spent on minigames = more $ for the other stuff.

AliamRationem.5172:

Djinn.9245:

Rhanoa.3960:

Dashingsteel.3410:

How the hell is Anet supposed to remember the casuals when nobody really knows what casual actually means?

Again, this thread is useless because everyone seems to have a different meaning assigned to the word casual.

Op….. Please provide specific points as to what the developers need to remember!!!

Linear and easy game play.

As someone who fits all definitions of “casual” – no. Gameplay does not have to be linear to be good for casual players. I love exploration as long as I’m not being killed every 3 seconds. I don’t mind figuring out where things are. That was the big fail for Tangled Depths for me. So many people love the intricacies of that map but I can’t enjoy that because I’m busy fighting / running for my life. The only time I get to take a breath and look around is at a WP (uncontested) or when I’m dead.

As for easy, since many players think that HoT mobs and even Champions are easy I guess that is also a range that depends on the player. I don’t mind more difficult mobs, just not so many of them.

As someone who fits YOUR definition of casual. Had you considered that you might be in the minority at this point? You’re working under the assumption that most players feel the way you do and you believe (but don’t know) that the reason HoT “failed” are the reasons you dislike it.

Am I? Can you point out to me where I claimed I was speaking for more people than myself? Have I given a specific reason why I think HoT failed?

It is true that I believe that HoT failed because many people who already played GW2 liked the game they were playing and did not appreciate the change in direction. It seems to be logical that if more players wanted challenging content, those players would have purchased HoT. So who did not purchase HoT that Anet thought would?

But again, that is just my opinion and I have never put it forth as fact. The only facts in this regard is that HoT did not do as well as expected and it failed many existing players.

STIHL.2489:

maddoctor.2738:

STIHL.2489:

Well I spent a little time back in VB , and I have noticed there are a lot less mobs floating around, and they seem much easier then I remember.

They did not change mob spawns in VB it’s same as it was at launch. As for difficulty, the only thing I remember changing was the itzel shadowleaper ability to evade ranged attacks, it know evades projectiles not all ranged attacks if I’m not mistaken. If anything, at launch it was easier due to the number of players around.

Of course if you were trying to move through while the dozens of players were fighting in events, it was more than likely you had to fight event-scaled mobs and maybe those caused you all that trouble. Spawning scaling mobs is the normal thing to do even on core tyria maps, try moving through the area around Tequatl when the event is active and you will notice mobs that 1-shot you, or moving between the Penit-Shelter waypoints in Cursed Shore while either event is ongoing. That’s not HoT-specific

Humm, well it felt like such a slog the first few months I tried to play, to the point that exploring was not so much about exploring and seeing the zone and looking at what was about, it was all nothing but these endless stupid hard fights… all the time.

Also I did a flamethrower engineer for the stability boon in HoT, because all that stuff has those stupid knock backs.

Understand that what you are responding to is an opinion presented as fact. There is no hard data on exactly what was changed. It is my opinion that people who liked HoT quickly became acclimated to the mobs / maps and so didn’t find them as difficult as I and many other casual players did in the first place.

FrizzFreston.5290:

Djinn.9245:

FrizzFreston.5290:

Djinn.9245:

azizul.8469:

Rong.5470:

I bet there will be infinite UnID kit in itemshop.

that’s the most valid reason for introducing it. monitization.

The question isn’t why Anet is introducing UnID Gear. The question is what is the player losing as a result.

Standard green and blue drops I guess? In HoT they were in championlike bags instead.

They are now partially hidden behind a choice of lower tier material through salvage or Identifying them with a cost to get the blue and greens and rares with an addition of unique skins that previously would be obtained through a currency grind.

The problem is that you are guessing and so is everyone else. I want to know for certain what reward UnID Gear is replacing. If it is replacing standard drops, we all know that it is possible to get Rares, Exotics, and even Precursors in standard drops. Are we losing those possibilities? Are those possibilities being hidden behind the new ADDED steps of first completing a heart and then taking the time and $ to ID the gear?

If so, this is a terrible idea.

Yeah its sort of a guess/deduction. You get unidentified gear from chests and as an event reward. Just like bags and those things in HoT. They dont completely take over standard drops. They are just a lootbag you can also salvage and need to go to a heart vendor for.

Instead of doing hearts for currency and having currency merchants you just do hearts to open your regular lootbags.

Loot containers in HoT often contain rares for me. I also just recently got a Ascended Chest from a bag. So until I know exactly what I’m losing by getting UnID gear. I’m going to say it’s bad.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I don’t think the Devs are going to give a specific answer on what’s in the loot tables, or what weight each category of items has, but….one never knows.

I’m not asking for that level of detail. Something like “Unidentified Gear replaces the first green drop you get from X” or whatever. But I’m certain you are correct that Anet is not going to give that info. In the absence of which I am forced to conclude that UnID Gear is bad.

Luckily, I don’t want an instance filled with cats. Also the cats are sometimes in very out-of-the way places in your instance so I wouldn’t see them anyway so I don’t care. If I had more control over my Home Instance so I could place things and cats, and turn certain cats on and off to make it new and different now and then, I would be more interested in getting more cats / stuff.

Rhanoa.3960:

Djinn.9245:

Anela.3867:

I am a 60 year old grandma with arthritic hands. I am also the 2nd worst player in the game, grandpa is the worst, and we LOVE HoT. We found the base game a bit boring so we left for a while then came back to HoT. We love the challenge and the additions like gliding, bouncing mushrooms, and ley lines. Challenge is fun….easy is boring.

So you are players that love challenges – that’s great but that’s not casual. There are also people in their 80s with artificial hips that run marathons, people in wheelchairs that climb mountains, etc. I love people like that, but that is practically the literal opposite of casual

It’s not like you can ask a mountain to change it’s elevation so the casuals can also reach the summit area and enjoy the view. Even some of the easiest hikes will have at least 500ft-1000ft elevation gain.

You are absolutely correct. That is one reason why casual people play video games.

FrizzFreston.5290:

Djinn.9245:

azizul.8469:

Rong.5470:

I bet there will be infinite UnID kit in itemshop.

that’s the most valid reason for introducing it. monitization.

The question isn’t why Anet is introducing UnID Gear. The question is what is the player losing as a result.

Standard green and blue drops I guess? In HoT they were in championlike bags instead.

They are now partially hidden behind a choice of lower tier material through salvage or Identifying them with a cost to get the blue and greens and rares with an addition of unique skins that previously would be obtained through a currency grind.

The problem is that you are guessing and so is everyone else. I want to know for certain what reward UnID Gear is replacing. If it is replacing standard drops, we all know that it is possible to get Rares, Exotics, and even Precursors in standard drops. Are we losing those possibilities? Are those possibilities being hidden behind the new ADDED steps of first completing a heart and then taking the time and $ to ID the gear?

If so, this is a terrible idea.

Galactic.6453:

But it’s the same thing when you dump them in the mystic forge.

No, it’s not the same. If you flush items in the MF, you know exactly what you are flushing. You can see how much it Vendors for. You can look up what you would get for it on the TP. If it is Medium Armor, you know exactly what kinds of salvage materials you could have received and whether it was possible to get any Ectos from it.

With UnID Gear, you don’t know anything about it so you can’t make an informed decision whether to salvage it or not.

Galactic.6453:

I feel like there there is a major misunderstanding as to what unidentified gear is.
There is no exotic or precursor “hiding” under there, it is simply a generic salvage item called “unidentified gear”. It doesn’t preroll anything.
You can either salvage it right there for profit or use it as a currency to gamble for good gear with heart vendors, which will on average always net you a loss. That’s how gambling works.

Identifying it on heart vendors is essentially the same thing as flushing your gear down the Mystic Forge, which gives you a chance of the next tier.
You’re not losing anything.

How are you certain? Do you have knowledge that the rest of us don’t from playing the preview? Please link it.

Pifil.5193:

Now you might think that it’s only 1s 68c and that’s not much. Yeah, identifying a single item doesn’t cost that much. Identifying thousands over the course of the expansion? Well, that adds up quickly doesn’t it.

Nevermind the ADDED time to ID before salvaging / selling that you never had to spend before. Plus the ADDED time to complete a heart before IDing that you never had to spend before…

IndigoSundown.5419:

Well I heard that we’ll be identify’n (fy’n)
Gonna have to go do the heart (do the heart)
‘Cause ANet found a a brand new annoyance
And decided that fun ain’t in the cards (aahh..).

So I’ll pull (I’ll pull) the game off of my hard drive (ooh)
And I’ll surrender my fan club card
And I’ll burn down the forum where we come to talk
Because this new feature fails hard.

You ain’t gonna see me identifyin’
I wish that they’d find something new
‘Cause I’d rather spend eternity eating Eggs Beetletun
Than give up knowing what’s in my loot

I guess I might seem sort of angry
ANet’s got me feeling like I’m not a fan
‘Cause I’m looking at something the opposite of fun
And there ain’t no way I’m gonna stand (fo-o-o-orr itt)

OK, so ANet, give me back my wallet
I’m not inclined to pay for this now
‘Cause I’d rather have a hundred thousand Charr sit on my face
Than ID any loot, and how.

I’d rather rip out my SSD
Than watch loot I could of had be salvaged
I’d rather slam my mace down on my face (yah)
Over and over and over and over again

Oh, can’t you see what I’m tryin’ to say, ANet…

I’d rather have my blood sucked out by Blizzard (Blizzard)
I’d rather play a Facebook game or two
I’d rather clean all the floors in the Black Citadel with my tongue
Than change the way we get loot.

Yes, I’d rather jump naked into Arah,
Or post comments on a fan site, so cold (co-o-o-o-old)
I’d rather dive into the piranha-filled hole in Tangled Depths
Than ID my loot drops for gold.

I’d rather Jenna ripped Logan’s heart out of his ribcage with her hands
and then threw it on the floor and stomped on it ’till he died
Than spend one minute IDin.

Disclaimer One: sincere apologies to Weird Al.
Disclaimer Two: This is a satirical attempt to let my feelings be known, the threats are not real.
Disclaimer Three: While I may or may not quit the game or purchase POF, this feature has managed to rile me as nothing else ANet has done in five years has.
Disclaimer Four: I know, don’t quit my day job.

LOL, nice one.

maddoctor.2738:

Djinn.9245:

No, it is literal truth for me in general

The only place really full with mobs is the Rata Novus lane in Tangled Depths. You can find places to stop and places without any mob spawns nearly everywhere else

There are roving bands of mobs everywhere.

azizul.8469:

Rong.5470:

I bet there will be infinite UnID kit in itemshop.

that’s the most valid reason for introducing it. monitization.

The question isn’t why Anet is introducing UnID Gear. The question is what is the player losing as a result.

warbignime.4610:

Djinn.9245:

warbignime.4610:

Ubi.4136:

As several have said, it is both space saving and a gold sink. The unidentified item could be basic garbage or a precursor…you won’t know until it’s ID’d. But, taking my example of over 5,000 hours played and no precursor, if I start ID’ing all that gear (hoping to finally get one), I just lose money, cause the items are barely worth more than the cost of ID’ing.

Here is something to note: it is silly for loot to be one way in the expansion and different in the core game. Which means, if this is the route they are going, they will be changing core Tyria’s loot to be on the same system. All of the named exotics will increase in price tenfold.

This is not even true, you will always net gain when id gears with high MF, rare drop is quite common not mentioning exotics.

Please link the stats that you draw this conclusion from. I haven’t seen any conclusive evidence for “you will always net gain”.

Have you even tried id them? rare droped 2/10 for me. Even if the rare rate is 1/30, you would never lose gold.

“Trying them” does not = evidence of “always” getting anything.

maddoctor.2738:

Djinn.9245:

The only time I get to take a breath and look around is at a WP (uncontested) or when I’m dead.

Yes of course. You are exaggerating obviously because this is really far from the truth

No, it is literal truth for me in general. There have been a handful of occasions when I have happened upon a place where I am not being attacked by several mobs and can take a breath. But that doesn’t happen with any regularity. Even places that seem safe I usually end up attacked by one of the infinite bands of roaming mobs that usually include a vet + many normal mobs.

It could be that if I spent more time in the map and learned it better I would find more places that that are actually safe, but I just can’t bring myself to spend more time in a map I hate.

Ashen.2907:

Daddicus.6128:

Ashen.2907:

To be fair, the core game failed some players just as HoT failed some players.

Agreed.

The problem is in equating those two things’ impact. The populations affected are very different quantities.

I think the biggest overall reason HoT failed (as an entity, not how it failed certain players) is that ANet listed to a very vocal minority. And, they looked at their history: GW1 added “hard mode” to accommodate that same demographic.

The problem is that they implemented an entire expansion heavily targeting those players.

As someone earlier said, if Hot had been four zones, but only one of which was really hard, it would have been much better received. Or, if they didn’t have so much XP/mastery gating. Or, if they had provided an adequate set of mapping tools to accommodate the new verticality.

But, ALL of the zones are difficult to navigate, and ALL of the zones were of extreme difficulty just to walk around in them. (Change in tense is intended.)

Yes the problem might be in equating the two because more paying players left the core game than were put off by HoT.

Interesting – can you point me to where you got these numbers?

Anela.3867:

I am a 60 year old grandma with arthritic hands. I am also the 2nd worst player in the game, grandpa is the worst, and we LOVE HoT. We found the base game a bit boring so we left for a while then came back to HoT. We love the challenge and the additions like gliding, bouncing mushrooms, and ley lines. Challenge is fun….easy is boring.

So you are players that love challenges – that’s great but that’s not casual. There are also people in their 80s with artificial hips that run marathons, people in wheelchairs that climb mountains, etc. I love people like that, but that is practically the literal opposite of casual

IndigoSundown.5419:

TexZero.7910:

The only people who legit think HoT failed are the same people who misunderstand the quaterly reports and look at a less than 1% decrease in Gemstore sales as a statement for how the game is currently running.

The median gem store sales before HoT (and during, based on NCSoft report including a statement that gem store sales were “stable” during Q4/15, the HoT launch quarter) were quite a bit higher than the new median since Q2/16. Referring to a “less than 1% decrease” is inaccurate when considering the entire period in which HoT has been the latest product.

However, despite the erroneous statement, the decrease is not necessarily all due to HoT. Other factors are likely also causes, and include things like:

• People achieving goals which require gold purchases who stop spending for gems to exchange for gold.
• The natural attrition all games suffer as they age.
• Gem store offerings not appealing to everyone, leading to reduced spending to get them. If people have what they want, and new stuff does not tickle their fancy, there is no need for them to spend.
• The “content drought” between HoT release in Q4/15 and the release of LS3 Episode 1 in Q3/16. What is most telling about the drought is that the first significant decline in store revenue since the HoT reveal in Q1/15 is noted in Q2/16, which was during the latter portion of the drought.

Then, there’s the ginormous gap between “HoT failed” and the official statement that “HoT did not perform as expected.”

I think that it’s obvious from the context that Anet meant that HoT “did not perform as expected” in the negative sense of that phrase. And so people are taking license with the language to say that “failed to perform as expected” is essentially the same thing. Which it is. So in that sense HoT failed. That doesn’t mean it was a complete failure, but I don’t think that most people claiming “HoT failed” have insisted it was a complete failure. We know that many people like it so it would be silly to insist it was a complete failure. But it obviously did fail to perform financially as expected, AND it was a failure to various degrees for many other players.

Rhanoa.3960:

Dashingsteel.3410:

How the hell is Anet supposed to remember the casuals when nobody really knows what casual actually means?

Again, this thread is useless because everyone seems to have a different meaning assigned to the word casual.

Op….. Please provide specific points as to what the developers need to remember!!!

Linear and easy game play.

As someone who fits all definitions of “casual” – no. Gameplay does not have to be linear to be good for casual players. I love exploration as long as I’m not being killed every 3 seconds. I don’t mind figuring out where things are. That was the big fail for Tangled Depths for me. So many people love the intricacies of that map but I can’t enjoy that because I’m busy fighting / running for my life. The only time I get to take a breath and look around is at a WP (uncontested) or when I’m dead.

As for easy, since many players think that HoT mobs and even Champions are easy I guess that is also a range that depends on the player. I don’t mind more difficult mobs, just not so many of them.

Rikimaru.7890:

So no I’m not excited for the mounts, I’m just really curious why would ANET give in and listen to the community on this one? Because there is really no point in this game for them.

I agree – the mounts are nothing but for show, another gimmick (do all that stuff now with mounts!), and another thing they can sell skins for in the Gem Shop. For show and Gem Shop is fine, but I was disappointed that dying the Raptor only dies a tiny portion of it. I wanted to dye mine black in the test but it was hardly noticeable.

Even if you don’t intend to play the content, I would pay $20 for gliding.

warbignime.4610:

Ubi.4136:

As several have said, it is both space saving and a gold sink. The unidentified item could be basic garbage or a precursor…you won’t know until it’s ID’d. But, taking my example of over 5,000 hours played and no precursor, if I start ID’ing all that gear (hoping to finally get one), I just lose money, cause the items are barely worth more than the cost of ID’ing.

Here is something to note: it is silly for loot to be one way in the expansion and different in the core game. Which means, if this is the route they are going, they will be changing core Tyria’s loot to be on the same system. All of the named exotics will increase in price tenfold.

This is not even true, you will always net gain when id gears with high MF, rare drop is quite common not mentioning exotics.

Please link the stats that you draw this conclusion from. I haven’t seen any conclusive evidence for “you will always net gain”.

warbignime.4610:

Why not just id them then, it’s not even that expensive, you would almost always net gain with the drop rate.

Please link the stats that you draw this conclusion from. I haven’t seen any conclusive evidence for “you would almost always net gain”.

Greener.6204:

Djinn.9245:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

FYI those with alt accounts can gift the free one to your main. I strongly recommend that (unless you play both accounts 4realz).

---

Djinn.9245:

More Eastern MMO-style boxes with random stuff! <shakes head>

You get one box free and can choose to never spend on them. I’m not sure why you’d be against this.

I never said I was against them being free, I deplore the addition of yet another gamble box in the gemstore. Eastern MMOs are completely full of gambling which apparently is what GW2 is going for since we’re also getting even more gambling in-game with UnID Gear.

Instead of thinking up more gimmicks, I’d prefer more Story or maybe even ARMOR! (Yes, I know these are different developers, but money spent on one is money not spent on the other.)

But money earned by selling one is money that can be spent creating the other . Development sans money is a sad prospect.

Anet could simply sell us more armor skins which many people are clamoring for. No one is asking for more gamble boxes.

ThomasC.1056:

Some french translations are also awkward at best.

Now, it may not be ANet’s fault. Usually, when a game is translated, the core company (ANet here) hires a specific company to do the translation job, which sometimes also includes voice actor acting and management, and sometimes, the control is quite loose.

Moreover, the guy (or girl) paid to do the translation often don’t know much about the ins and out of what he translates : it may even come down to an excel spreadsheet with a list of words and expressions to translate…

I’m betting it’s something like this. Which is a shame for those who speak different languages.

Rong.5470:

I bet there will be infinite UnID kit in itemshop.

I would bet on it.

Ardid.7203:

STIHL.2489:

“Casual” is a mindset, or more aptly put, an approach on how someone plays the game. In simple terms, “casual” defines their motive and drive, as opposed to being serious about the game, or hardcore. Truth is, being “Casual” is irrespective of skill or time played. As how many hours someone invests into a game or how skilled they are at playing a game, have no bearing the mindset they have or how they approach the game.

In short, a “Casual” is not looking for a something serious that they have to work at or treat like a job, they are looking to escape into a fantasy world as someone might take a casual stroll in the woods to escape the daily grind of life.

By following your definition, I’m a casual.

I get into Verdant Brink, I equip the fun build I enjoy the most (Flamethrower FTW!), jump from a cliff and begin to search for any close event to participate. I run across mobs I don’t want to fight, and surprise those I want to kill. I can prevail fairly often, but I’m killed often too, so I begin anew, usually in a different direction, following any of the outpost stories because they are just amazing.

Sometimes I just fly around from air vent to air vent

If you flew around when you first got to VB, I wouldn’t admit it…

After getting the masteries to move around freely and certainly by now I’m sure a lot of people are fine. And Anet nerfed HoT also of course.

But as has already been pointed out many times in these forums, some people are just inherently better at GW2 than others. I don’t do nearly as well with my Engi in VB as you seem to.

DoctorDing.5890:

On my second account I got three identical account bound minis! They even stacked.

Can the minis be vendored or something? If not then anyone who actually purchases these boxes is getting ripped off. Paying gems for stuff you have to destroy – great idea.